
The Great Transformation
The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time
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 $27.29
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
David Pickering
-
By:
-
Karl Polanyi
About this listen
In this classic work of economic history and social theory, Karl Polanyi analyzes the economic and social changes brought about by the great transformation of the Industrial Revolution. His analysis explains not only the deficiencies of the self-regulating market, but the potentially dire social consequences of untempered market capitalism. New introductory material reveals the renewed importance of Polanyi's seminal analysis in an era of globalization and free trade.
This audiobook is expertly read by David Pickering, and was produced and published by Echo Point Books & Media, an independent bookseller in Brattleboro, Vermont. Audio engineering by David Pickering and Blake Rook.
©1944, 1957, 2001 Karl Polanyi (P)2024 Echo Point Books & Media, LLCListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Eurasian Century
- Hot Wars, Cold Wars, and the Making of the Modern Century
- By: Hal Brands
- Narrated by: Tim Fannon
- Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hal Brands argues that a better understanding of Eurasia's strategic geography can illuminate the contours of rivalry and conflict in today's world. The Eurasian Century explains how revolutions in technology and warfare, and the rise of toxic ideologies of conquest, made Eurasia the center of twentieth-century geopolitics—with pressing implications for the struggles that will define the twenty-first.
-
-
Worth the read.
- By Chip Eckert on 02-24-25
By: Hal Brands
-
Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy
- Exploring the Evolution of Economic Systems and the Future of Democracy
- By: Joseph A. Schumpeter
- Narrated by: John Clickman
- Length: 18 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy: Exploring the Evolution of Economic Systems and the Future of Democracy by Joseph A. Schumpeter is a seminal work that examines the dynamics of economic systems and their societal impact. Published in 1942, this influential book introduces the concept of "creative destruction," illustrating how innovation disrupts established industries to drive progress. Schumpeter explores the strengths and vulnerabilities of capitalism, arguing that its success ironically paves the way for its decline through institutional shifts and bureaucratic expansion.
-
Psychopolitics
- Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power
- By: Byung-Chul Han
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 2 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Byung-Chul Han, a star of German philosophy, continues his passionate critique of neoliberalism, trenchantly describing a regime of technological domination that, in contrast to Foucault’s biopower, has discovered the productive force of the psyche.
-
-
Jargon and ambiguity are not honest intellectualism
- By carsonwelker on 10-18-24
By: Byung-Chul Han
-
Waste Land
- A World in Permanent Crisis
- By: Robert D. Kaplan
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We are entering a new era of global cataclysm in which the world faces a deadly mix of war, climate change, great power rivalry, rapid technological advancement, the end of both monarchy and empire, and countless other dangers. In Waste Land, Robert D. Kaplan, geopolitical expert and author of more than twenty books on world affairs, incisively explains how we got here and where we are going.
-
-
Climate / Population Alarmism in a Mask
- By ElovesK on 02-07-25
By: Robert D. Kaplan
-
Invisible Doctrine
- The Secret History of Neoliberalism
- By: George Monbiot, Peter Hutchison
- Narrated by: George Monbiot
- Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Invisible Doctrine, journalist George Monbiot and filmmaker Peter Hutchison shatter this myth. They show how a fringe philosophy in the 1930s—championing competition as the defining feature of humankind—was systematically hijacked by a group of wealthy elites, determined to guard their fortunes and power.
-
-
Timely
- By Joshua on 05-15-25
By: George Monbiot, and others
-
Bluff
- Poems
- By: Danez Smith
- Narrated by: Danez Smith
- Length: 2 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Written after two years of artistic silence, during which the world came to a halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Minneapolis became the epicenter of protest following the murder of George Floyd, Bluff is Danez Smith's powerful reckoning with their role and responsibility as a poet and with their hometown of the Twin Cities. This is a book of awakening out of violence, guilt, shame, and critical pessimism to wonder and imagine how we can strive toward a new existence in a world that seems to be dissolving into desolate futures.
-
-
Wow!
- By Andre on 10-28-24
By: Danez Smith
-
The Eurasian Century
- Hot Wars, Cold Wars, and the Making of the Modern Century
- By: Hal Brands
- Narrated by: Tim Fannon
- Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hal Brands argues that a better understanding of Eurasia's strategic geography can illuminate the contours of rivalry and conflict in today's world. The Eurasian Century explains how revolutions in technology and warfare, and the rise of toxic ideologies of conquest, made Eurasia the center of twentieth-century geopolitics—with pressing implications for the struggles that will define the twenty-first.
-
-
Worth the read.
- By Chip Eckert on 02-24-25
By: Hal Brands
-
Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy
- Exploring the Evolution of Economic Systems and the Future of Democracy
- By: Joseph A. Schumpeter
- Narrated by: John Clickman
- Length: 18 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy: Exploring the Evolution of Economic Systems and the Future of Democracy by Joseph A. Schumpeter is a seminal work that examines the dynamics of economic systems and their societal impact. Published in 1942, this influential book introduces the concept of "creative destruction," illustrating how innovation disrupts established industries to drive progress. Schumpeter explores the strengths and vulnerabilities of capitalism, arguing that its success ironically paves the way for its decline through institutional shifts and bureaucratic expansion.
-
Psychopolitics
- Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power
- By: Byung-Chul Han
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 2 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Byung-Chul Han, a star of German philosophy, continues his passionate critique of neoliberalism, trenchantly describing a regime of technological domination that, in contrast to Foucault’s biopower, has discovered the productive force of the psyche.
-
-
Jargon and ambiguity are not honest intellectualism
- By carsonwelker on 10-18-24
By: Byung-Chul Han
-
Waste Land
- A World in Permanent Crisis
- By: Robert D. Kaplan
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We are entering a new era of global cataclysm in which the world faces a deadly mix of war, climate change, great power rivalry, rapid technological advancement, the end of both monarchy and empire, and countless other dangers. In Waste Land, Robert D. Kaplan, geopolitical expert and author of more than twenty books on world affairs, incisively explains how we got here and where we are going.
-
-
Climate / Population Alarmism in a Mask
- By ElovesK on 02-07-25
By: Robert D. Kaplan
-
Invisible Doctrine
- The Secret History of Neoliberalism
- By: George Monbiot, Peter Hutchison
- Narrated by: George Monbiot
- Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Invisible Doctrine, journalist George Monbiot and filmmaker Peter Hutchison shatter this myth. They show how a fringe philosophy in the 1930s—championing competition as the defining feature of humankind—was systematically hijacked by a group of wealthy elites, determined to guard their fortunes and power.
-
-
Timely
- By Joshua on 05-15-25
By: George Monbiot, and others
-
Bluff
- Poems
- By: Danez Smith
- Narrated by: Danez Smith
- Length: 2 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Written after two years of artistic silence, during which the world came to a halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Minneapolis became the epicenter of protest following the murder of George Floyd, Bluff is Danez Smith's powerful reckoning with their role and responsibility as a poet and with their hometown of the Twin Cities. This is a book of awakening out of violence, guilt, shame, and critical pessimism to wonder and imagine how we can strive toward a new existence in a world that seems to be dissolving into desolate futures.
-
-
Wow!
- By Andre on 10-28-24
By: Danez Smith
-
King Dollar
- The Past and Future of the World's Dominant Currency
- By: Paul Blustein
- Narrated by: David Stifel
- Length: 12 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Prophecies that the dollar will lose its status as the world's dominant currency have echoed for decades—and are increasing in volume. Cryptocurrency enthusiasts claim that Bitcoin or other blockchain-based monetary units will replace the dollar. Foreign policy hawks warn that China's renminbi poses a lethal threat to the greenback. And sound money zealots predict that mounting US debt and inflation will surely erode the dollar's value to the point of irrelevancy.
By: Paul Blustein
-
The Theory of Moral Sentiments
- By: Adam Smith
- Narrated by: Michael Lunts
- Length: 16 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) was the first major text by Adam Smith who, seven years later, was to publish what was to become one of the major economic classics, The Wealth of Nations (1776). However, Smith regarded The Theory of Moral Sentiments as his most important work because in it he identified the profound human instinct to act not necessarily in self-interest but through, as he phrased it, a ‘mutual sympathy of sentiments’.
-
-
What Makes Humans Humane
- By Zeno on 10-06-18
By: Adam Smith
-
Technofeudalism
- What Killed Capitalism
- By: Yanis Varoufakis
- Narrated by: Yanis Varoufakis
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Technofeudalism says Yanis Varoufakis, is the new power that is reshaping our lives and the world, and is the greatest current threat to the liberal individual, to our efforts to avert climate catastrophe—and to democracy itself. It also lies behind the new geopolitical tensions, especially the New Cold War between the United States and China. Drawing on stories from Greek myth and pop culture, from Homer to Mad Men, Varoufakis explains this revolutionary transformation: how it enslaves our minds, how it rewrites the rules of global power, and, ultimately, what it will take overthrow it.
-
-
The narration is literally the worst.
- By Shakeiad on 09-24-24
By: Yanis Varoufakis
-
The Democracy Project
- A History, a Crisis, a Movement
- By: David Graeber
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Democracy has been the American religion since before the Revolution - from New England town halls to the multicultural democracy of Atlantic pirate ships. But can our current political system, one that seems responsive only to the wealthiest among us and leaves most Americans feeling disengaged, voiceless, and disenfranchised, really be called democratic? And if the tools of our democracy are not working to solve the rising crises we face, how can we - average citizens - make change happen? David Graeber, one of the most influential scholars and activists of his generation, takes listeners on a journey through the idea of democracy.
-
-
Must-read: such insight, an awakening!
- By Kevin on 10-15-14
By: David Graeber
-
The Reveries of the Solitary Walker
- By: Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
- Length: 4 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Reveries of the Solitary Walker was one of the last works written by the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) and was, in fact, not quite complete. It was published four years after his death and came quickly to be regarded as one of his most poetic works. It consists of 10 Walks (only the final ‘Walk’ was unfinished) during which he muses on a variety of topics including thoughts on issues which featured strongly in his notable life as a philosopher and commentator, including education and political philosophy.
-
-
Good but lacking
- By Ya'at'eeh on 06-05-23
-
Inflation
- A Guide for Users and Losers
- By: Nicolò Fraccaroli, Mark Blyth
- Narrated by: Rebecca H. Lee
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inflation is back, and its impact can be felt everywhere, from the grocery store to the mortgage market to the results of elections around the world. Yet the conventional wisdom about inflation is stuck in the past. Since the 1970s, there has only really been one playbook for fighting inflation: raise interest rates, thereby creating unemployment and a recession, which will lower prices. But this simple story hides a multitude of beliefs about why prices go up and how policymakers can wrestle them back down, beliefs that are often wrong, damaging, and have little empirical basis.
By: Nicolò Fraccaroli, and others
-
Equality
- What It Means and Why It Matters
- By: Thomas Piketty, Michael J. Sandel
- Narrated by: Derek Dysart, Stephen Graybill
- Length: 2 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this compelling dialogue, two of the world’s most influential thinkers reflect on the value of equality and debate what citizens and governments should do to narrow the gaps that separate us. Ranging across economics, philosophy, history, and current affairs, Thomas Piketty and Michael Sandel consider how far we have come in achieving greater equality. At the same time, they confront head-on the extreme divides that remain in wealth, income, power, and status nationally and globally.
By: Thomas Piketty, and others
-
Thaddeus Stevens
- Civil War Revolutionary, Fighter for Racial Justice
- By: Bruce Levine
- Narrated by: Landon Woodson
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thaddeus Stevens was among the first to see the Civil War as an opportunity for a second American revolution - a chance to remake the country as a genuine multiracial democracy. As one of the foremost abolitionists in Congress in the years leading up to the war, he was a leader of the young Republican Party’s radical wing, fighting for anti-slavery and anti-racist policies long before party colleagues like Abraham Lincoln endorsed them. These policies - including welcoming black men into the Union’s armies - would prove crucial to the Union war effort.
-
-
Excellent bio of a political hero
- By Anonymous User on 03-11-21
By: Bruce Levine
-
A History of the Muslim World
- From Its Origins to the Dawn of Modernity
- By: Michael A. Cook
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 52 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This book describes and explains the major events, personalities, conflicts, and convergences that have shaped the history of the Muslim world. The body of the work takes listeners from the origins of Islam to the eve of the nineteenth century, and an epilogue continues the story to the present day. Michael Cook thus provides a broad history of a civilization remarkable for both its unity and diversity.
-
-
Sweeping yet detailed
- By Dr. Krishnendu Ray on 05-22-24
By: Michael A. Cook
-
A Brief History of Artificial Intelligence
- What It Is, Where We Are, and Where We Are Going
- By: Michael Wooldridge
- Narrated by: Glen McCready
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Oxford's leading AI researcher comes a fun and accessible tour through the history and future of one of the most cutting edge and misunderstood field in science: artificial intelligence.
-
-
very basic.
- By Placeholder on 11-11-21
-
Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now
- By: Jaron Lanier
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 4 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
You might have trouble imagining life without your social media accounts, but virtual reality pioneer Jaron Lanier insists that we’re better off without them. In his important new audiobook, Lanier, who participates in no social media, offers powerful and personal reasons for all of us to leave these dangerous online platforms behind before it’s too late. Lanier remains a tech optimist, so while demonstrating the evil that rules social media business models today, he also envisions a humanistic setting for social networking that can direct us towards richer and fuller way of living and connecting.
-
-
Hatred for Trump Interferes with book
- By Maggie Lawrence on 06-23-20
By: Jaron Lanier
-
How Will Capitalism End?
- Essays on a Failing System
- By: Wolfgang Streeck
- Narrated by: David Skulski
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After years of ill health, capitalism is now in a critical condition. Growth has given way to stagnation; inequality is leading to instability; and confidence in the money economy has all but evaporated. In How Will Capitalism End?, the acclaimed analyst of contemporary politics and economics Wolfgang Streeck argues the world is about to change.
-
-
Thorough but this is a bit dry
- By We on 08-16-22
By: Wolfgang Streeck
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Great Transformation
- China’s Road from Revolution to Reform
- By: Chen Jian, Odd Arne Westad
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin
- Length: 14 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Odd Arne Westad and Chen Jian chronicle how an impoverished and terrorized China experienced radical political changes in the long 1970s and how ordinary people broke free from the beliefs that had shaped their lives during Mao’s Cultural Revolution. These changes, and the unprecedented and sustained economic growth that followed, transformed China and the world.
-
-
Excellent history but the narration’s mispronunciation takes away from the story
- By Anonymous User on 04-19-25
By: Chen Jian, and others
-
The Great Transformation
- The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions
- By: Karen Armstrong
- Narrated by: Karen Armstrong
- Length: 22 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From one of the world's leading writers on religion and the highly acclaimed author of the best-selling A History of God, The Battle for God, and The Spiral Staircase, comes a major new work: a chronicle of one of the most important intellectual revolutions in world history and its relevance to our own time.
-
-
Fills in the blanks
- By Laura on 09-20-06
By: Karen Armstrong
-
Global Capitalism
- Its Fall and Rise in the Twentieth Century, and Its Stumbles in the Twenty-First
- By: Jeffry A. Frieden
- Narrated by: Gary Noon
- Length: 22 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An authoritative, insightful, and highly engaging history of the twentieth-century global economy, updated with a new chapter on the early decades of the new century. Global Capitalism guides the listener from the globalization of the early twentieth century and its swift collapse in the crises of 1914–45, to the return to global integration at the end of the century, and the subsequent retreat in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008.
-
Globalists
- The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism
- By: Quinn Slobodian
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the first intellectual history of neoliberal globalism, author Quinn Slobodian follows a group of thinkers from the ashes of the Habsburg Empire to the creation of the World Trade Organization to show that neoliberalism emerged less to shrink government and abolish regulations than to redeploy them at a global level.
-
-
Tracing Neoliberalism to Its European Origins
- By Will Szal on 06-25-19
By: Quinn Slobodian
-
Democracy Incorporated
- Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism
- By: Sheldon S. Wolin
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sheldon Wolin considers the unthinkable: has America unwittingly morphed into a new and strange kind of political hybrid, one where economic and state powers are conjoined and virtually unbridled? Can the nation check its descent into what the author terms "inverted totalitarianism"? Wolin portrays a country where citizens are politically uninterested and submissive - and where elites are eager to keep them that way.
-
-
Essential listening....
- By M. Levine on 02-25-11
By: Sheldon S. Wolin
-
China's World View
- Demystifying China to Prevent Global Conflict
- By: David Daokui Li
- Narrated by: David Shih
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Writing in response to the growing anti-Chinese sentiment and alarmed by the threat of war, Dr. David Daokui Li pulls from his wealth of firsthand experience to demystify contemporary Chinese society and advocate for understanding between China and the West. In this urgently needed and fascinating book, he explains the inner workings of a rising superpower to help the world understand how it works-and how to work with it.
-
-
The spirit of this book is critically important.
- By Mike Turner on 06-21-24
By: David Daokui Li
-
The Great Transformation
- China’s Road from Revolution to Reform
- By: Chen Jian, Odd Arne Westad
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin
- Length: 14 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Odd Arne Westad and Chen Jian chronicle how an impoverished and terrorized China experienced radical political changes in the long 1970s and how ordinary people broke free from the beliefs that had shaped their lives during Mao’s Cultural Revolution. These changes, and the unprecedented and sustained economic growth that followed, transformed China and the world.
-
-
Excellent history but the narration’s mispronunciation takes away from the story
- By Anonymous User on 04-19-25
By: Chen Jian, and others
-
The Great Transformation
- The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions
- By: Karen Armstrong
- Narrated by: Karen Armstrong
- Length: 22 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From one of the world's leading writers on religion and the highly acclaimed author of the best-selling A History of God, The Battle for God, and The Spiral Staircase, comes a major new work: a chronicle of one of the most important intellectual revolutions in world history and its relevance to our own time.
-
-
Fills in the blanks
- By Laura on 09-20-06
By: Karen Armstrong
-
Global Capitalism
- Its Fall and Rise in the Twentieth Century, and Its Stumbles in the Twenty-First
- By: Jeffry A. Frieden
- Narrated by: Gary Noon
- Length: 22 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An authoritative, insightful, and highly engaging history of the twentieth-century global economy, updated with a new chapter on the early decades of the new century. Global Capitalism guides the listener from the globalization of the early twentieth century and its swift collapse in the crises of 1914–45, to the return to global integration at the end of the century, and the subsequent retreat in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008.
-
Globalists
- The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism
- By: Quinn Slobodian
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the first intellectual history of neoliberal globalism, author Quinn Slobodian follows a group of thinkers from the ashes of the Habsburg Empire to the creation of the World Trade Organization to show that neoliberalism emerged less to shrink government and abolish regulations than to redeploy them at a global level.
-
-
Tracing Neoliberalism to Its European Origins
- By Will Szal on 06-25-19
By: Quinn Slobodian
-
Democracy Incorporated
- Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism
- By: Sheldon S. Wolin
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sheldon Wolin considers the unthinkable: has America unwittingly morphed into a new and strange kind of political hybrid, one where economic and state powers are conjoined and virtually unbridled? Can the nation check its descent into what the author terms "inverted totalitarianism"? Wolin portrays a country where citizens are politically uninterested and submissive - and where elites are eager to keep them that way.
-
-
Essential listening....
- By M. Levine on 02-25-11
By: Sheldon S. Wolin
-
China's World View
- Demystifying China to Prevent Global Conflict
- By: David Daokui Li
- Narrated by: David Shih
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Writing in response to the growing anti-Chinese sentiment and alarmed by the threat of war, Dr. David Daokui Li pulls from his wealth of firsthand experience to demystify contemporary Chinese society and advocate for understanding between China and the West. In this urgently needed and fascinating book, he explains the inner workings of a rising superpower to help the world understand how it works-and how to work with it.
-
-
The spirit of this book is critically important.
- By Mike Turner on 06-21-24
By: David Daokui Li
-
A Short History of Financial Euphoria
- By: John Kenneth Galbraith
- Narrated by: Liam Gerrard
- Length: 2 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With incomparable wisdom, skill, and wit, world-renowned economist John Kenneth Galbraith traces the history of the major speculative episodes in our economy over the last three centuries. Exposing the ways in which normally sane people display reckless behavior in pursuit of profit, Galbraith asserts that our "notoriously short" financial memory is what creates the conditions for market collapse. By recognizing these signs and understanding what causes them we can guard against future recessions and have a better hold on our country's (and our own) financial destiny.
-
-
Short and Sweet
- By Phebe on 05-19-25
-
The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution
- By: Francis Fukuyama
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 22 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Virtually all human societies were once organized tribally, yet over time most developed new political institutions which included a central state that could keep the peace and uniform laws that applied to all citizens. Some went on to create governments that were accountable to their constituents. We take these institutions for granted, but they are absent or are unable to perform in many of today’s developing countries—with often disastrous consequences for the rest of the world.
-
-
Few forests, but lots of trees
- By Steve Pagano on 10-05-15
By: Francis Fukuyama
-
The Prophets of Doom
- By: Neema Parvini
- Narrated by: Sebastian Abineri
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Linear and progressive views of history have dominated the popular imagination for the past seventy years in a worldview wedded to the inexorable rise of globalization and GDP growth at any cost. However, the end of the Cold War failed to produce the end of history as hoped, a fact brought home to many by Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
-
-
Would rather have AA read it
- By Kindle Customer on 03-29-25
By: Neema Parvini
-
Another Now
- A Novel
- By: Yanis Varoufakis
- Narrated by: Kevin Kenerly
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Imagine if Occupy and Extinction Rebellion actually won. In Another Now, world-famous economist Yanis Varoufakis shows us what such a world would look like. Far from being a fantasy, he describes how it could have come about—and might yet. But would we really want it? Varoufakis’s boundary-breaking new book confounds expectations of what the good society would look like and reveals the uncomfortable truth about our desire for a better world.
-
-
Solutions!
- By Anonymous User on 06-04-22
By: Yanis Varoufakis
-
The Origin of Capitalism
- A Longer View
- By: Ellen Meiksins Wood
- Narrated by: Jo Anna Perrin
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ellen Meiksins Wood offers a clear and accessible introduction to the theories and debates concerning the birth of capitalism, imperialism, and the modern nation state. Capitalism is not a natural and inevitable consequence of human nature, nor simply an extension of age-old practices of trade and commerce. Rather, it is a late and localized product of very specific historical conditions, which required great transformations in social relations and in the relationship between humans and nature.
-
-
incredibly dence.
- By Jake Fahey on 10-22-21
-
And the Weak Suffer What They Must?
- Europe's Crisis and America's Economic Future
- By: Yanis Varoufakis
- Narrated by: Yanis Varoufakis, Leighton Pugh
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In January 2015, Yanis Varoufakis, an economics professor teaching in Austin, Texas, was elected to the Greek parliament with more votes than any other member of parliament. He was appointed finance minister, and, in the whirlwind five months that followed, everything he had warned about was confirmed as the "troika" (the European Central Bank, International Monetary Fund, and European Commission) stonewalled his efforts to resolve Greece's economic crisis.
-
-
interesting perspective
- By Jamila on 07-12-20
By: Yanis Varoufakis
-
A People’s Tragedy
- By: Orlando Figes
- Narrated by: Roger Davis
- Length: 47 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Opening with a panorama of Russian society, from the cloistered world of the Tsar to the brutal life of the peasants, A People’s Tragedy follows workers, soldiers, intellectuals and villagers as their world is consumed by revolution and then degenerates into violence and dictatorship. Drawing on vast original research, Figes conveys above all the shocking experience of the revolution for those who lived it, while providing the clearest and most cogent account of how and why it unfolded.
-
-
It would be 5 stars
- By Michael Polevoy on 01-31-19
By: Orlando Figes
-
Imagined Communities
- Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism
- By: Benedict Anderson
- Narrated by: Kevin Foley
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
i>Imagined Communities, Benedict Anderson's brilliant book on nationalism, forged a new field of study when it first appeared in 1983. Since then it has sold over a quarter of a million copies and is widely considered the most important book on the subject. In this greatly anticipated revised edition, Anderson updates and elaborates on the core question: What makes people live and die for nations, as well as hate and kill in their names?
-
-
Heavy debatable theory
- By adam bardaro on 04-16-19
-
A Secular Age
- By: Charles Taylor
- Narrated by: Dennis Holland
- Length: 42 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What does it mean to say that we live in a secular age? Almost everyone would agree that we - in the West, at least - largely do. And clearly the place of religion in our societies has changed profoundly in the last few centuries. In what will be a defining book for our time, Charles Taylor takes up the question of what these changes mean - of what, precisely, happens when a society in which it is virtually impossible not to believe in God becomes one in which faith, even for the staunchest believer, is only one human possibility among others.
-
-
Needs Guest Narrators for French and German
- By Norman on 06-13-15
By: Charles Taylor
-
All Things Are Full of Gods
- The Mysteries of Mind and Life
- By: David Bentley Hart
- Narrated by: Rachael Beresford
- Length: 22 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a blossoming garden located far outside all worlds, a group of aging Greek gods have gathered to discuss the nature of existence, the mystery of mind, and whether there is a transcendent God from whom all things come. Turning to Eros, Psyche asks, "Do you see this flower, my love?"
-
-
It's all in the mind
- By Owen Kelly on 08-30-24
-
Governing the Commons
- The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action (Canto Classics)
- By: Elinor Ostrom
- Narrated by: Kathleen Godwin
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The governance of natural resources used by many individuals in common is an issue of increasing concern to policy analysts. Both state control and privatization of resources have been advocated, but neither the state nor the market have been uniformly successful in solving common pool resource problems.
By: Elinor Ostrom
-
Copaganda
- How Police and the Media Manipulate Our News
- By: Alec Karakatsanis
- Narrated by: Andrew Joseph Perez
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"Copaganda" is a special kind of propaganda employed by police, prosecutors, and news media. It stokes fear of police-recorded crime and distorts society’s responses to it. As the United States incarcerates five times more people per capita than it did in 1970—despite record low crime rates—a sprawling and profitable punishment bureaucracy spends a lot of time and money to manipulate what we think that bureaucracy does and why.
-
-
a good introduction to propaganda
- By Anonymous User on 05-16-25
Self regulating markets eventually fail
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A classic
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.