-
The Politics of Obedience
- A Discourse on Voluntary Servitude
- Narrated by: Bootsy Greenwood
- Length: 1 hr and 15 mins
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 $6.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
In this seminal work of political philosophy, Boétie asks one of the most obvious questions of political theory: Why is it that a minority of rulers can remain in power over a majority of subjects who pay all the taxes?
The answer might be quite surprising to us all. The conclusion is that the people tend to enslave themselves, to let themselves be governed by tyrants.
Liberty is the natural condition of the people. Servitude, however, is fostered when people are raised in subjection. People are trained to adore rulers. While freedom is forgotten by many, there are always some who will never submit.
What is the answer, then?
The author brilliantly and obviously outlines these points in the minutes that follow in a way that is illuminating and also simple. It is we who enslave ourselves at the beck and call of "authority". Enjoy this classic work that roots sovereignty into philosophy and demonstrates how simply the tides can change.
A note by the translator:
La Boétie's essay against dictators makes stirring listening.
A clear analysis of how tyrants get power and maintain it, its simple assumption is that real power always lies in the hands of the people and that they can free themselves from a despot by an act of will unaccompanied by any gesture of violence. The astounding fact about this tract is that in 1948 it will be 400 years old.
One would seek hard to find any writing of current times that strips the sham from dictators more vigorously. Better than many modern political thinkers, its author not only reveals the contemptible nature of dictatorships, but he goes on to show, as is aptly stated by the exiled Borgese, "that all servitude is voluntary and the slave is more despicable than the tyrant is hateful". No outraged cry from the past or present points the moral more clearly that Rome was worthy of her Nero, and by inference, Europe of her present little strutters and the agony in which they have engulfed their world.
So appropriate to our day is this courageous essay that one's amazement is aroused by the fact that a youth of 18 really wrote it four centuries ago, with such far-sighted wisdom that his words can resound today as an ever-echoing demand for what is still dearest to mankind.
(Harry Burz, 1942)
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Rape of the Mind
- The Psychology of Thought Control, Menticide, and Brainwashing
- By: Dr. Joost A.M. Meerloo
- Narrated by: Chris Matthews
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since 1933, when a completely drugged and trial-conditioned human wreck confessed to having started the Reichstag fire in Berlin, Dr. Joost A. M. Meerloo has studied the methods by which systematic mental pressure brings people to abject submission, and by which totalitarians imprint their subjective "truth" onto their victims' minds. And in The Rape of the Mind, he goes far beyond the direct military implications of mental torture to describing how our own culture unobtrusively shows symptoms of pressurizing people's minds.
-
-
not a fan of the narrator
- By Timothy Mack on 07-24-22
-
Manufacturing Consent
- The Political Economy of the Mass Media
- By: Edward S. Herman, Noam Chomsky
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 15 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this pathbreaking work, now with a new introduction, Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky show that, contrary to the usual image of the news media as cantankerous, obstinate, and ubiquitous in their search for truth and defense of justice, in their actual practice they defend the economic, social, and political agendas of the privileged groups that dominate domestic society, the state, and the global order.
-
-
Eye opening
- By EFM on 03-24-18
By: Edward S. Herman, and others
-
The Anatomy of the State (LvMI)
- By: Murray N. Rothbard
- Narrated by: John Riddle
- Length: 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Murray Rothbard was known as the state's greatest living enemy, and this audiobook is his most powerful statement on the topic. He explains what a state is and what it is not. He shows how it is an institution that violates all that we hold as honest and moral, and how it operates under a false cover.
-
-
Good material
- By Tom on 12-14-19
-
One Nation Under Blackmail, Vol. 1
- The Sordid Union Between Intelligence and Crime that Gave Rise to Jeffrey Epstein
- By: Whitney Alyse Webb
- Narrated by: Grace Noble
- Length: 18 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Volume one of One Nation Under Blackmail traces the origin of the network behind Jeffrey Epstein and his associates to the merging of organized crime and intelligence networks during World War II, following their most notable activities through the decades.
-
-
A must have
- By Steven Gerweck on 04-04-23
-
Propaganda
- The Formation of Men’s Attitudes
- By: Jacques Ellul
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 15 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From one of the greatest French philosophers of the 20th century comes a seminal study and critique of propaganda. Taking not only a psychological approach but a sociological approach as well, Jacques Ellul outlines the taxonomy for propaganda and, ultimately, its destructive nature towards democracy. Drawing from his own experiences fighting for the French resistance against the Vichy regime, Ellul offers a unique insight into the propaganda machine.
-
-
Excellent analysis on the dichotomies of propagandize media
- By Anonymous User on 04-03-21
By: Jacques Ellul
-
The White Pill
- A Tale of Good and Evil
- By: Michael Malice
- Narrated by: Michael Malice
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Bolsheviks promised that they were building a new society, a workers’ paradise that would change the nature of mankind itself. What they ended up constructing was the largest prison the world had ever seen: a Union of Soviet Socialist Republics that spanned half the globe.
-
-
Do not buy the audio version.
- By Todd on 02-20-23
By: Michael Malice
-
The Rape of the Mind
- The Psychology of Thought Control, Menticide, and Brainwashing
- By: Dr. Joost A.M. Meerloo
- Narrated by: Chris Matthews
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since 1933, when a completely drugged and trial-conditioned human wreck confessed to having started the Reichstag fire in Berlin, Dr. Joost A. M. Meerloo has studied the methods by which systematic mental pressure brings people to abject submission, and by which totalitarians imprint their subjective "truth" onto their victims' minds. And in The Rape of the Mind, he goes far beyond the direct military implications of mental torture to describing how our own culture unobtrusively shows symptoms of pressurizing people's minds.
-
-
not a fan of the narrator
- By Timothy Mack on 07-24-22
-
Manufacturing Consent
- The Political Economy of the Mass Media
- By: Edward S. Herman, Noam Chomsky
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 15 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this pathbreaking work, now with a new introduction, Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky show that, contrary to the usual image of the news media as cantankerous, obstinate, and ubiquitous in their search for truth and defense of justice, in their actual practice they defend the economic, social, and political agendas of the privileged groups that dominate domestic society, the state, and the global order.
-
-
Eye opening
- By EFM on 03-24-18
By: Edward S. Herman, and others
-
The Anatomy of the State (LvMI)
- By: Murray N. Rothbard
- Narrated by: John Riddle
- Length: 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Murray Rothbard was known as the state's greatest living enemy, and this audiobook is his most powerful statement on the topic. He explains what a state is and what it is not. He shows how it is an institution that violates all that we hold as honest and moral, and how it operates under a false cover.
-
-
Good material
- By Tom on 12-14-19
-
One Nation Under Blackmail, Vol. 1
- The Sordid Union Between Intelligence and Crime that Gave Rise to Jeffrey Epstein
- By: Whitney Alyse Webb
- Narrated by: Grace Noble
- Length: 18 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Volume one of One Nation Under Blackmail traces the origin of the network behind Jeffrey Epstein and his associates to the merging of organized crime and intelligence networks during World War II, following their most notable activities through the decades.
-
-
A must have
- By Steven Gerweck on 04-04-23
-
Propaganda
- The Formation of Men’s Attitudes
- By: Jacques Ellul
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 15 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From one of the greatest French philosophers of the 20th century comes a seminal study and critique of propaganda. Taking not only a psychological approach but a sociological approach as well, Jacques Ellul outlines the taxonomy for propaganda and, ultimately, its destructive nature towards democracy. Drawing from his own experiences fighting for the French resistance against the Vichy regime, Ellul offers a unique insight into the propaganda machine.
-
-
Excellent analysis on the dichotomies of propagandize media
- By Anonymous User on 04-03-21
By: Jacques Ellul
-
The White Pill
- A Tale of Good and Evil
- By: Michael Malice
- Narrated by: Michael Malice
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Bolsheviks promised that they were building a new society, a workers’ paradise that would change the nature of mankind itself. What they ended up constructing was the largest prison the world had ever seen: a Union of Soviet Socialist Republics that spanned half the globe.
-
-
Do not buy the audio version.
- By Todd on 02-20-23
By: Michael Malice
-
Democracy: The God That Failed
- The Economics and Politics of Monarchy, Democracy and Natural Order (Perspectives on Democratic Practice)
- By: Hans-Hermann Hoppe
- Narrated by: Paul Strikwerda
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This sweeping book is a systematic treatment of the historic transformation of the West from limited monarchy to unlimited democracy. Revisionist in nature, it reaches the conclusion that monarchy, with all its failings, is a lesser evil than mass democracy but outlines deficiencies in both as systems of guarding liberty.
-
-
Audiobook Chapter 11 is actually a repeat of Chapter 9
- By Anonymous User on 08-23-21
-
The Psychology of Totalitarianism
- By: Mattias Desmet
- Narrated by: Dan Crue
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Totalitarianism is not a coincidence and does not form in a vacuum. It arises from a collective psychosis that has followed a predictable script throughout history. In The Psychology of Totalitarianism, world-renowned Professor of Clinical Psychology Mattias Desmet deconstructs the societal conditions that allow this collective psychosis to take hold. By looking at our current situation and identifying the phenomenon of “mass formation”—a type of collective hypnosis—he clearly illustrates how close we are to surrendering to totalitarian regimes.
-
-
Is this the best book every written?
- By Susan M on 07-18-22
By: Mattias Desmet
-
The Myth of Sisyphus
- By: Albert Camus
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the most influential works of this century, The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays is a crucial exposition of existentialist thought. Influenced by works such as Don Juan and the novels of Kafka, these essays begin with a meditation on suicide; the question of living or not living in a universe devoid of order or meaning.
-
-
Brilliant work, excellently narrated
- By Richard B. on 04-30-19
By: Albert Camus
-
Most Dangerous Superstition
- By: Larken Rose
- Narrated by: Patrick Smith
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The vast majority of theft, extortion, intimidation, harassment, assault, and even murder - in other words, the vast majority of man's inhumanity to man - comes not from the greed, hatred and intolerance that lurks in our hearts. Rather, it comes from one pernicious and almost universal assumption, one unquestioned belief, one irrational, self-contradictory superstition: the belief in "authority".
-
-
FLAWLESS debunking of the most destructive belief!
- By Amanda Rose on 05-29-20
By: Larken Rose
-
No Treason: The Anarchist Classic with a New Introduction
- By: Lysander Spooner
- Narrated by: Ayrton Parham
- Length: 3 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lysander Spooner was one of slavery’s fiercest enemies. As a lawyer, he offered free legal services to escaped slaves, defending them in court. He advocated smuggling guns to slaves, with which to overthrow their masters, and take possession of their property. “Give the Slave-holders, then, a taste of their own whips.”
-
-
I HAVE SEARCHED FOR THE WORDS FOR A LONG TIME
- By devon on 07-16-19
By: Lysander Spooner
-
Natural Law
- By: Lysander Spooner
- Narrated by: Bill Franchuk
- Length: 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lysander Spooner (January 19, 1808 - May 14, 1887) was an American political philosopher, essayist, pamphlet writer, Unitarian, abolitionist, legal theorist, and entrepreneur of the 19th century. He was a strong advocate of the labor movement and severely anti-authoritarian and individualist in political views. Spooner was born on a farm in Athol, Massachusetts, on January 19, 1808, and died on May 14, 1887, in Boston.
-
-
Lysander Spooner must be taught in schools!
- By devon on 07-15-19
By: Lysander Spooner
-
What’s Wrong with the World
- By: G. K. Chesterton
- Narrated by: Bernard Mayes
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this important book, G.K. Chesterton offers a remarkably perceptive analysis of social and moral issues, even more relevant today than in his own time. With a light, humorous tone but a deadly serious philosophy, he comments on errors in education, on feminism vs. true womanhood, on the importance of the child, and other issues, using incisive arguments against the trendsetters’ assaults on the common man and the family.
-
-
The mind that finds...
- By Darwin8u on 05-24-17
By: G. K. Chesterton
-
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
- By: John Locke
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 30 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
John Locke and his works - particularly An Essay Concerning Human Understanding - are regularly and rightly presented as foundations for the Age of Enlightenment. His primary epistemological message - that the mind at birth is a blank sheet waiting to be filled by the experiences of the senses - complemented his primary political message: that human beings are free and equal and have the right to envision, create and direct the governments that rule them and the societies within which they live.
-
-
Exhaustive Philosophic Treatise
- By No to Statism on 09-25-18
By: John Locke
-
Letters from a Stoic
- Penguin Classics
- By: Seneca, Robin Campbell
- Narrated by: Julian Glover
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Seeing self-possession as the key to an existence lived 'in accordance with nature', the Stoic philosophy called for the restraint of animal instincts and the importance of upright ethical ideals and virtuous living. Seneca's writings are a profound, powerfully moving and inspiring declaration of the dignity of the individual mind.
-
-
Returned - Not "Unabridged"
- By Michael Augustus Ennis on 12-03-21
By: Seneca, and others
-
Dialogues of Plato
- By: Plato
- Narrated by: Pat Bottino
- Length: 5 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Dialogues of Plato rank with the writings of Aristotle as the most important and influential philosophical works in Western thought. In them Plato cast his teacher Socrates as the central disputant in colloquies that brilliantly probe a vast spectrum of philosophical ideas and issues.
-
-
Not Complete Dialogues
- By Jill on 08-30-07
By: Plato
-
Daily Stoic: A Daily Journal
- On Meditation, Stoicism, Wisdom and Philosophy to Improve Your Life
- By: George Tanner
- Narrated by: Isaac Mantelli
- Length: 3 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This audiobook is a collection of Stoic sayings organized to allow daily reference and inspiration. The Stoic advice covered in this volume runs the gambit from personal problems, to interpersonal relationships, to advice on work and productivity, to dealing with the hand of fate.
-
-
A window into stoicism
- By Rhea Sand on 04-24-19
By: George Tanner
-
The Assassination of Julius Caesar
- A People's History of Ancient Rome
- By: Michael Parenti
- Narrated by: David Stifel
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Most historians, both ancient and modern, have viewed the Late Republic of Rome through the eyes of its rich nobility - the one percent of the population who controlled 99 percent of the empire's wealth. In The Assassination of Julius Caesar, Michael Parenti recounts this period, spanning the years 100 to 33 BC, from the perspective of the Roman people. In doing so, he presents a provocative, trenchantly researched narrative of popular resistance against a powerful elite.
-
-
another side to Roman history
- By Darksnovia on 04-16-22
By: Michael Parenti
Related to this topic
-
The Prince
- By: Nicolo Machiavelli
- Narrated by: Joseph Gomez
- Length: 3 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Prince is a 16th-century political treatise by the Italian diplomat and political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli. Machiavelli wrote The Prince in 1513, after he was forced to leave Florence as a political exile. Dedicated to Lorenzo de’ Medici, the work is Machiavelli’s advice to the ruler of Florence on how to stay in power.
-
Dialogues of Plato
- By: Plato
- Narrated by: Pat Bottino
- Length: 5 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Dialogues of Plato rank with the writings of Aristotle as the most important and influential philosophical works in Western thought. In them Plato cast his teacher Socrates as the central disputant in colloquies that brilliantly probe a vast spectrum of philosophical ideas and issues.
-
-
Not Complete Dialogues
- By Jill on 08-30-07
By: Plato
-
The Jewish War
- By: Flavius Josephus
- Narrated by: Alastair Cameron
- Length: 19 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Jewish rebellion against Rome was a significant turning point in Jewish history. Although Josephus is known for his divided loyalties in the rebellion, his account is the most detailed record available of the Jewish life and revolt under Roman rule. Born in Jerusalem to a father of priestly descent and a mother who claimed royal ancestry, Josephus was a first-century Romano-Jewish scholar, hagiographer, and historian.
-
-
terrible narration will put you to sleep.
- By Amazon Customer on 10-18-20
By: Flavius Josephus
-
The Memorable Thoughts of Socrates
- By: Xenophon, Edward Bysshe - translator
- Narrated by: Nicholas Tecosky
- Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Xenophon was a Greek who admired and studied with Socrates. He marched with the Spartans and later was exiled from Athens. He wrote about the history of his times, the sayings of Socrates and about life in Greece. Edward Bysshe translated Xenophone's work in 1702. This translation has continued to have an excellent reputation. In this work Xenophon discusses the views of life taught by Socrates.
-
-
Philosopher, Soldier, Historian and Mercenary
- By Darwin8u on 12-04-12
By: Xenophon, and others
-
The Jewish War
- By: Flavius Josephus
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 23 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In AD 66, nationalist and religious revolutionaries in Judaea led a ferocious revolt of the Jewish people against the authority of mighty Rome, culminating in the greatest upheaval and savagery the world had known up to that time. By the end of the conflict seven years later, over one million Jews had perished and tens of thousands were sold into slavery. Until the Holocaust, it remained the greatest tragedy ever endured by a people. How had this once prosperous region been laid low, and by what process did its fratricidal feuds take it down a slippery slope to utter annihilation? Fortunately for us, there was an eyewitness.
-
-
mispronunciations are irritating
- By DR on 01-22-18
By: Flavius Josephus
-
The Age of Caesar
- Five Roman Lives
- By: Plutarch, James Romm - preface and notes, Pamela Mensch - translator
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pompey, Caesar, Cicero, Brutus, Antony: the names resonate across thousands of years. Major figures in the civil wars that brutally ended the Roman republic, their lives still haunt us as examples of how the hunger for personal power can overwhelm collective politics, how the exaltation of the military can corrode civilian authority, and how the best intentions can lead to disastrous consequences. Plutarch renders these history-making lives as flesh-and-blood characters.
-
-
Terrific
- By Michael on 06-13-23
By: Plutarch, and others
-
The Prince
- By: Nicolo Machiavelli
- Narrated by: Joseph Gomez
- Length: 3 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Prince is a 16th-century political treatise by the Italian diplomat and political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli. Machiavelli wrote The Prince in 1513, after he was forced to leave Florence as a political exile. Dedicated to Lorenzo de’ Medici, the work is Machiavelli’s advice to the ruler of Florence on how to stay in power.
-
Dialogues of Plato
- By: Plato
- Narrated by: Pat Bottino
- Length: 5 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Dialogues of Plato rank with the writings of Aristotle as the most important and influential philosophical works in Western thought. In them Plato cast his teacher Socrates as the central disputant in colloquies that brilliantly probe a vast spectrum of philosophical ideas and issues.
-
-
Not Complete Dialogues
- By Jill on 08-30-07
By: Plato
-
The Jewish War
- By: Flavius Josephus
- Narrated by: Alastair Cameron
- Length: 19 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Jewish rebellion against Rome was a significant turning point in Jewish history. Although Josephus is known for his divided loyalties in the rebellion, his account is the most detailed record available of the Jewish life and revolt under Roman rule. Born in Jerusalem to a father of priestly descent and a mother who claimed royal ancestry, Josephus was a first-century Romano-Jewish scholar, hagiographer, and historian.
-
-
terrible narration will put you to sleep.
- By Amazon Customer on 10-18-20
By: Flavius Josephus
-
The Memorable Thoughts of Socrates
- By: Xenophon, Edward Bysshe - translator
- Narrated by: Nicholas Tecosky
- Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Xenophon was a Greek who admired and studied with Socrates. He marched with the Spartans and later was exiled from Athens. He wrote about the history of his times, the sayings of Socrates and about life in Greece. Edward Bysshe translated Xenophone's work in 1702. This translation has continued to have an excellent reputation. In this work Xenophon discusses the views of life taught by Socrates.
-
-
Philosopher, Soldier, Historian and Mercenary
- By Darwin8u on 12-04-12
By: Xenophon, and others
-
The Jewish War
- By: Flavius Josephus
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 23 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In AD 66, nationalist and religious revolutionaries in Judaea led a ferocious revolt of the Jewish people against the authority of mighty Rome, culminating in the greatest upheaval and savagery the world had known up to that time. By the end of the conflict seven years later, over one million Jews had perished and tens of thousands were sold into slavery. Until the Holocaust, it remained the greatest tragedy ever endured by a people. How had this once prosperous region been laid low, and by what process did its fratricidal feuds take it down a slippery slope to utter annihilation? Fortunately for us, there was an eyewitness.
-
-
mispronunciations are irritating
- By DR on 01-22-18
By: Flavius Josephus
-
The Age of Caesar
- Five Roman Lives
- By: Plutarch, James Romm - preface and notes, Pamela Mensch - translator
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pompey, Caesar, Cicero, Brutus, Antony: the names resonate across thousands of years. Major figures in the civil wars that brutally ended the Roman republic, their lives still haunt us as examples of how the hunger for personal power can overwhelm collective politics, how the exaltation of the military can corrode civilian authority, and how the best intentions can lead to disastrous consequences. Plutarch renders these history-making lives as flesh-and-blood characters.
-
-
Terrific
- By Michael on 06-13-23
By: Plutarch, and others
-
The Story of the Goths
- By: Henry Bradley
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Goths are the most enigmatic of all the ancient German tribes. Their name today is still widely in use for a variety of cultural and artistic movements. But unlike other famous German tribes whose names are still descriptive of nations they founded - the Franks, the Lombards, the Angles, the Saxons and the Alemanni - the Goths simply disappeared. The subject of Henry Bradley's splendid short history is tracing the rise, the migrations, and the impact of the Goths on European history along with their spectacular fall.
-
-
Interesting Book about a little understood people
- By Mark on 07-29-15
By: Henry Bradley
-
Parallel Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans
- By: Plutarch
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 83 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Plutarch (c. AD 46-AD 120) was born to a prominent family in the small Greek town of Chaeronea, about 20 miles east of Delphi in the region known as Boeotia. His best known work is the Parallel Lives, a series of biographies of famous Greeks and Romans, arranged in pairs to illuminate their common moral virtues and vices. The surviving lives contain 23 pairs, each with one Greek life and one Roman life as well as four unpaired single lives.
-
-
For the Very Dedicated
- By John Pinkerton on 03-13-18
By: Plutarch
-
Seneca - On the Shortness of Life: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader
- By: Lucius Seneca, James Harris
- Narrated by: Scott R. Smith
- Length: 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
De Brevitate Vitae (frequently referred to as On the Shortness of Life in English) is a moral essay written by Seneca the Younger, a Roman Stoic philosopher, to his father-in-law Paulinus. The philosopher brings up many Stoic principles on the nature of time, namely that men waste much of it in meaningless pursuits. According to the essay, nature gives man enough time to do what is really important and the individual must allot it properly.
-
-
Terrible narration. Sorry I purchased this one!
- By Ellis Vee on 01-12-17
By: Lucius Seneca, and others
-
The Jugurthine War & The Conspiracy of Cataline
- By: Sallust, Cicero
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A bloody revolt by a North African prince and a plot to seize control of Rome are the subjects of two short masterpieces of ancient history by the illustrious Roman chronicler, Sallust. He could not have chosen two more dramatic episodes in the long history of this city.
-
-
Excellent Production
- By cbrann on 04-22-05
By: Sallust, and others
-
Oroonoko
- By: Aphra Behn
- Narrated by: Clare Wille
- Length: 3 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A vivid love story and adventure tale, Oroonoko is a heroic slave narrative about a royal prince and his fight for freedom. The eponymous hero, Oroonoko, deemed royalty in one world and slave in another, is torn from his noble status and betrayed into slavery in Surinam, where he is reduced to chains, fetters, and shackles. But his high spirit and admirable character will not be suppressed.
-
-
Outstanding Narration, Story Less So
- By Carsley on 07-14-18
By: Aphra Behn
-
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume 1
- By: Edward Gibbon
- Narrated by: Bernard Mayes
- Length: 41 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Considered one of the finest historical works in the English language, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is lauded for its graceful, elegant prose style as much as for its epic scope. Remarkably accurate for its day, Gibbon's treatise holds a high place in the history of literature and remains an enduring subject of study.
Gibbon's monumental work traces the history of more than 13 centuries, covering the great events as well as the general historical progression. This first volume covers A.D. 180 to A.D. 395, which includes the establishment of Christianity and the Crusades.
-
-
One of the best purchases of my life
- By MJL on 10-03-11
By: Edward Gibbon
-
Utopia
- By: Sir Thomas More
- Narrated by: James Adams
- Length: 4 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Utopia is the name given by Sir Thomas More to an imaginary island in this political work written in 1516. Book I of Utopia, a dialogue, presents a perceptive analysis of contemporary social, economic, and moral ills in England. Book II is a narrative describing a country run according to the ideals of the English humanists, where poverty, crime, injustice, and other ills do not exist.
-
-
More's unobtainable vision of the ideal society
- By Darwin8u on 06-12-13
By: Sir Thomas More
-
Tyrant
- Shakespeare on Politics
- By: Stephen Greenblatt
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 5 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As an aging, tenacious Elizabeth I clung to power, a talented playwright probed the social causes, the psychological roots, and the twisted consequences of tyranny. In exploring the psyche (and psychoses) of the likes of Richard III, Macbeth, Lear, Coriolanus, and the societies they rule over, Stephen Greenblatt illuminates the ways in which William Shakespeare delved into the lust for absolute power and the catastrophic consequences of its execution.
-
-
Too Close for Comfort
- By C. Gross on 05-10-18
-
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization
- By: Anthony Esolen
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Western civilization is under attack. At universities and in the media, professors and pundits decry Western civilization as exploitative, destructive, and without value. But fear not: coming to its defense is this "P.I." guide to Western civilization.
-
-
Holy Neo-Nazism Batman!
- By Douglas on 12-03-11
By: Anthony Esolen
-
Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
- By: Charles MacKay
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 27 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why do otherwise intelligent individuals form seething masses of idiocy when they engage in collective action? We may think that the Great Crash of 1929, junk bonds of the '80s, and over-valued high-tech stocks of the '90s are peculiarly 20th century aberrations, but Mackay's classic - first published in 1841 - shows that the madness and confusion of crowds knows no limits, and has no temporal bounds.
-
-
People don't change
- By J. on 07-05-16
By: Charles MacKay
-
The Art of Worldly Wisdom
- By: Balthasar Gracian
- Narrated by: Keira Grace
- Length: 4 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Art of Worldly Wisdom was written in 1647. It is a collection of 300 maxims on various topics, each elaborated with a commentary. The sayings offer advice and guidance on how to live well, advance socially, and be a better person.
-
-
Terrible Narration
- By John P. Owens on 08-31-22
-
The Greek Way
- By: Edith Hamilton
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Based on a thorough study of Greek life and civilization, of Greek literature, philosophy, and art, The Greek Way interprets their meaning and brings a realization of the refuge and strength the past can be to us in the troubled present. Miss Hamilton's book must take its place with the few interpretative volumes which are permanently rooted and profoundly alive in our literature.
-
-
...Not as Good as The Echo of Greece
- By The Masked Reviewer on 11-04-16
By: Edith Hamilton