
The True Flag
Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the Birth of American Empire
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 $20.24
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Robert Petkoff
-
By:
-
Stephen Kinzer
About this listen
The best-selling author of Overthrow and The Brothers brings to life the forgotten political debate that set America's interventionist course in the world for the 20th century and beyond.
How should the United States act in the world? Americans cannot decide. Sometimes we burn with righteous anger, launching foreign wars and deposing governments. Then we retreat - until the cycle begins again.
No matter how often we debate this question, none of what we say is original. Every argument is a pale shadow of the first and greatest debate, which erupted more than a century ago. Its themes resurface every time Americans argue whether to intervene in a foreign country.
Revealing a piece of forgotten history in The True Flag, Stephen Kinzer transports us to the dawn of the 20th century, when the United States first found itself with the chance to dominate faraway lands. That prospect thrilled some Americans. It horrified others. Their debate gripped the nation.
The country's best-known political and intellectual leaders took sides. Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Cabot Lodge, and William Randolph Hearst pushed for imperial expansion; Mark Twain, Booker T. Washington, and Andrew Carnegie preached restraint. Only once before - in the period when the United States was founded - have so many brilliant Americans so eloquently debated a question so fraught with meaning for all humanity.
All Americans, regardless of political perspective, can take inspiration from the titans who faced off in this epic confrontation. Their words are amazingly current. Every argument over America's role in the world grows from this one. It all starts here. This program includes an introduction read by the author.
©2017 Stephen Kinzer (P)2017 Macmillan AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
Gangsters of Capitalism
- Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America's Empire
- By: Jonathan M. Katz
- Narrated by: Adam Barr
- Length: 14 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Smedley Butler was the most celebrated warfighter of his time. Best-selling books were written about him. Hollywood adored him. Wherever the flag went, “The Fighting Quaker” went - serving in nearly every major overseas conflict from the Spanish War of 1898 until the eve of World War II.
-
-
nostalgic melancholy sadness of yet another time
- By Robert Eaton Jr. on 01-29-22
By: Jonathan M. Katz
-
Overthrow
- America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq
- By: Stephen Kinzer
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"Regime change" did not begin with the administration of George W. Bush, but has been an integral part of U.S. foreign policy for more than one hundred years. Starting with the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893 and continuing through the Spanish-American War and the Cold War and into our own time, the United States has not hesitated to overthrow governments that stood in the way of its political and economic goals.
-
-
Looking at the dark side
- By Stanley on 08-02-06
By: Stephen Kinzer
-
Poisoner in Chief
- Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control
- By: Stephen Kinzer
- Narrated by: James Linkin
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The visionary chemist Sidney Gottlieb was the CIA’s master magician and gentlehearted torturer - the agency’s “poisoner in chief.” As head of the MK-ULTRA mind control project, he directed brutal experiments at secret prisons on three continents. He made pills, powders, and potions that could kill or maim without a trace - including some intended for Fidel Castro and other foreign leaders. He paid prostitutes to lure clients to CIA-run bordellos, where they were secretly dosed with mind-altering drugs. His experiments spread LSD across the United States.
-
-
Narration not great
- By VelvetLedbetter on 09-20-19
By: Stephen Kinzer
-
All the Shah's Men
- An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror
- By: Stephen Kinzer
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard, Jonathan Yen
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a cloak-and-dagger story of spies, saboteurs, and secret agents, Kinzer reveals the involvement of Eisenhower, Churchill, Kermit Roosevelt, and the CIA in Operation Ajax, which restored Mohammad Reza Shah to power. Reza imposed a tyranny that ultimately sparked the Islamic Revolution of 1979 which, in turn, inspired fundamentalists throughout the Muslim world, including the Taliban and terrorists who thrived under its protection.
-
-
Hard to please
- By Rick on 09-25-04
By: Stephen Kinzer
-
Reset
- Iran, Turkey, and America's Future
- By: Stephen Kinzer
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What can the United States do to help realize its dream of a peaceful, democratic Middle East? Stephen Kinzer offers a surprising answer in this paradigm-shifting book. Two countries in the region, he argues, are America's logical partners in the 21st century: Turkey and Iran.
-
-
challenges stereotypes
- By R.S. on 06-14-10
By: Stephen Kinzer
-
American Midnight
- The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis
- By: Adam Hochschild
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 15 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From legendary historian Adam Hochschild, a groundbreaking reassessment of the overlooked but startlingly resonant period between World War I and the Roaring Twenties, when the foundations of American democracy were threated by war, pandemic, and violence fueled by battles over race, immigration, and the rights of labor
-
-
Disturbing yet Reassuring
- By Sams95 on 11-18-22
By: Adam Hochschild
-
Gangsters of Capitalism
- Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America's Empire
- By: Jonathan M. Katz
- Narrated by: Adam Barr
- Length: 14 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Smedley Butler was the most celebrated warfighter of his time. Best-selling books were written about him. Hollywood adored him. Wherever the flag went, “The Fighting Quaker” went - serving in nearly every major overseas conflict from the Spanish War of 1898 until the eve of World War II.
-
-
nostalgic melancholy sadness of yet another time
- By Robert Eaton Jr. on 01-29-22
By: Jonathan M. Katz
-
Overthrow
- America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq
- By: Stephen Kinzer
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"Regime change" did not begin with the administration of George W. Bush, but has been an integral part of U.S. foreign policy for more than one hundred years. Starting with the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893 and continuing through the Spanish-American War and the Cold War and into our own time, the United States has not hesitated to overthrow governments that stood in the way of its political and economic goals.
-
-
Looking at the dark side
- By Stanley on 08-02-06
By: Stephen Kinzer
-
Poisoner in Chief
- Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control
- By: Stephen Kinzer
- Narrated by: James Linkin
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The visionary chemist Sidney Gottlieb was the CIA’s master magician and gentlehearted torturer - the agency’s “poisoner in chief.” As head of the MK-ULTRA mind control project, he directed brutal experiments at secret prisons on three continents. He made pills, powders, and potions that could kill or maim without a trace - including some intended for Fidel Castro and other foreign leaders. He paid prostitutes to lure clients to CIA-run bordellos, where they were secretly dosed with mind-altering drugs. His experiments spread LSD across the United States.
-
-
Narration not great
- By VelvetLedbetter on 09-20-19
By: Stephen Kinzer
-
All the Shah's Men
- An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror
- By: Stephen Kinzer
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard, Jonathan Yen
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a cloak-and-dagger story of spies, saboteurs, and secret agents, Kinzer reveals the involvement of Eisenhower, Churchill, Kermit Roosevelt, and the CIA in Operation Ajax, which restored Mohammad Reza Shah to power. Reza imposed a tyranny that ultimately sparked the Islamic Revolution of 1979 which, in turn, inspired fundamentalists throughout the Muslim world, including the Taliban and terrorists who thrived under its protection.
-
-
Hard to please
- By Rick on 09-25-04
By: Stephen Kinzer
-
Reset
- Iran, Turkey, and America's Future
- By: Stephen Kinzer
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What can the United States do to help realize its dream of a peaceful, democratic Middle East? Stephen Kinzer offers a surprising answer in this paradigm-shifting book. Two countries in the region, he argues, are America's logical partners in the 21st century: Turkey and Iran.
-
-
challenges stereotypes
- By R.S. on 06-14-10
By: Stephen Kinzer
-
American Midnight
- The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis
- By: Adam Hochschild
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 15 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From legendary historian Adam Hochschild, a groundbreaking reassessment of the overlooked but startlingly resonant period between World War I and the Roaring Twenties, when the foundations of American democracy were threated by war, pandemic, and violence fueled by battles over race, immigration, and the rights of labor
-
-
Disturbing yet Reassuring
- By Sams95 on 11-18-22
By: Adam Hochschild
-
American Exception
- Empire and the Deep State
- By: Aaron Good
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To trace the evolution of the American state, Aaron Good takes a deep-politics approach. The term “deep state” was badly misappropriated during the Trump era. In the simplest sense, it here refers to all those institutions that collectively exercise undemocratic power over state and society. To trace how we arrived at this point, American Exception explores various deep state institutions and history-making interventions.
-
-
I buy the premises, but not the conclusions...
- By Clark on 01-05-23
By: Aaron Good
-
The Devil's Chessboard
- Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government
- By: David Talbot
- Narrated by: Peter Altschuler
- Length: 25 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An explosive, headline-making portrait of Allen Dulles, the man who transformed the CIA into the most powerful - and secretive - colossus in Washington, from the founder of Salon.com and author of the New York Times best seller Brothers.
-
-
Disturbing. Makes you question the company line.
- By KTS on 02-06-16
By: David Talbot
-
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
-
How to Hide an Empire
- A History of the Greater United States
- By: Daniel Immerwahr
- Narrated by: Luis Moreno
- Length: 17 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We are familiar with maps that outline all 50 states. And we are also familiar with the idea that the United States is an "empire", exercising power around the world. But what about the actual territories - the islands, atolls, and archipelagos - this country has governed and inhabited? In How to Hide an Empire, author Daniel Immerwahr tells the fascinating story of the United States outside the United States. In crackling, fast-paced prose, he reveals forgotten episodes that cast American history in a new light.
-
-
How to beat a straw man to death
- By Susan on 01-25-20
By: Daniel Immerwahr
-
King Leopold's Ghost
- A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa
- By: Adam Hochschild
- Narrated by: Geoffrey Howard
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the late 1890s, Edmund Dene Morel, a young British shipping company agent, noticed something strange about the cargoes of his company's ships as they arrived from and departed for the Congo. Incoming ships were crammed with valuable ivory and rubber. Outbound ships carried little more than soldiers and firearms. Correctly concluding that only slave labor could account for these cargoes, Morel almost singlehandedly made this slave-labor regime the premier human rights story in the world.
-
-
Fascinating
- By Edith on 01-20-11
By: Adam Hochschild
-
The Last Honest Man
- The CIA, the FBI, the Mafia, and the Kennedys—and One Senator's Fight to Save Democracy
- By: James Risen, Thomas Risen - contributor
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 15 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Senator Frank Church of Idaho was an unlikely hero. He led congressional opposition to the Vietnam War and had become a scathing, radical critic of what he saw as American imperialism around the world. But he was still politically ambitious, privately yearning for acceptance from the foreign policy establishment that he hated and eager to run for president. Despite his flaws, Church would show historic strength in his greatest moment, when in the wake of Watergate he was suddenly tasked with investigating abuses of power in the intelligence community.
-
-
why do so many books have a liberal bias?
- By Doug Altrichter on 08-20-23
By: James Risen, and others
-
Legacy of Ashes
- The History of the CIA
- By: Tim Weiner
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 21 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the book the CIA does not want you to read. For the last 60 years, the CIA has maintained a formidable reputation in spite of its terrible record, never disclosing its blunders to the American public. It spun its own truth to the nation while reality lay buried in classified archives. Now, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter Tim Weiner offers a stunning indictment of the CIA, a deeply flawed organization that has never deserved America's confidence.
-
-
Flawed but Important
- By Michael on 07-18-08
By: Tim Weiner
-
A Peace to End All Peace
- The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East
- By: David Fromkin
- Narrated by: David de Vries
- Length: 23 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Middle East has long been a region of rival religions, ideologies, nationalisms, and ambitions. All of these conflicts are rooted in the region's political inheritance: the arrangements, unities, and divisions imposed by the Allies after the First World War. Author David Fromkin reveals how and why the Allies drew lines on an empty map that remade the geography and politics of the Middle East. Focusing on the formative years of 1914 to 1922, when all seemed possible, he delivers in this sweeping and magisterial book the definitive account of this defining time.
-
-
Still A Great Book On The Topic
- By Nostromo on 02-03-19
By: David Fromkin
-
Talking to My Daughter About the Economy
- Or, How Capitalism Works - and How It Fails
- By: Yanis Varoufakis
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 4 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Yanis Varoufakis has appeared before heads of nations, assemblies of experts, and countless students around the world. Now, he faces his most important - and difficult - audience yet. Using clear language and vivid examples, Varoufakis offers a series of letters to his young daughter about the economy: how it operates, where it came from, how it benefits some while impoverishing others. Taking bankers and politicians to task, he explains the historical origins of inequality among and within nations, questions the pervasive notion that everything has its price, and shows why economic instability is a chronic risk.
-
-
Super Digestible
- By Sean on 06-30-22
By: Yanis Varoufakis
-
Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills
- By: Steven Novella, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Steven Novella
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No skill is more important in today's world than being able to think about, understand, and act on information in an effective and responsible way. What's more, at no point in human history have we had access to so much information, with such relative ease, as we do in the 21st century. But because misinformation out there has increased as well, critical thinking is more important than ever. These 24 rewarding lectures equip you with the knowledge and techniques you need to become a savvier, sharper critical thinker in your professional and personal life.
-
-
Same Material Different Title
- By rkeinc on 09-21-14
By: Steven Novella, and others
-
The Great Divide
- The Conflict Between Washington and Jefferson That Defined a Nation
- By: Thomas Fleming
- Narrated by: David Rapkin
- Length: 16 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
History tends to cast the early years of America in a glow of camaraderie when there were, in fact, many conflicts between the Founding Fathers - none more important than the one between George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Their disagreement centered on the highest, most original public office created by the Constitutional Convention: the presidency. It also involved the nation's foreign policy, the role of merchants and farmers in a republic, and the durability of the union.
-
-
Very Readable
- By Jean on 05-02-15
By: Thomas Fleming
-
A People's History of the United States
- By: Howard Zinn
- Narrated by: Jeff Zinn
- Length: 34 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For much of his life, historian Howard Zinn chronicled American history from the bottom up, throwing out the official version taught in schools - with its emphasis on great men in high places - to focus on the street, the home, and the workplace. Known for its lively, clear prose as well as its scholarly research, A People's History of the United States is the only volume to tell America's story from the point of view of - and in the words of - America's women, factory workers, African-Americans, Native Americans, the working poor, and immigrant laborers.
-
-
Amateur hour in the production booth
- By Thomas on 11-09-10
By: Howard Zinn
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Overthrow
- America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq
- By: Stephen Kinzer
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"Regime change" did not begin with the administration of George W. Bush, but has been an integral part of U.S. foreign policy for more than one hundred years. Starting with the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893 and continuing through the Spanish-American War and the Cold War and into our own time, the United States has not hesitated to overthrow governments that stood in the way of its political and economic goals.
-
-
Looking at the dark side
- By Stanley on 08-02-06
By: Stephen Kinzer
-
The Brothers
- John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War
- By: Stephen Kinzer
- Narrated by: David Cochran Heath
- Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
John Foster Dulles was secretary of state while his brother, Allen Dulles, was director of the Central Intelligence Agency. In this book, Stephen Kinzer places their extraordinary lives against the backdrop ofAmerican culture and history. He uses the framework of biography to ask: Why does the United States behave as it does in the world?
-
-
A duel biography
- By Jean on 09-26-14
By: Stephen Kinzer
-
Poisoner in Chief
- Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control
- By: Stephen Kinzer
- Narrated by: James Linkin
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The visionary chemist Sidney Gottlieb was the CIA’s master magician and gentlehearted torturer - the agency’s “poisoner in chief.” As head of the MK-ULTRA mind control project, he directed brutal experiments at secret prisons on three continents. He made pills, powders, and potions that could kill or maim without a trace - including some intended for Fidel Castro and other foreign leaders. He paid prostitutes to lure clients to CIA-run bordellos, where they were secretly dosed with mind-altering drugs. His experiments spread LSD across the United States.
-
-
Narration not great
- By VelvetLedbetter on 09-20-19
By: Stephen Kinzer
-
All the Shah's Men
- An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror
- By: Stephen Kinzer
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard, Jonathan Yen
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a cloak-and-dagger story of spies, saboteurs, and secret agents, Kinzer reveals the involvement of Eisenhower, Churchill, Kermit Roosevelt, and the CIA in Operation Ajax, which restored Mohammad Reza Shah to power. Reza imposed a tyranny that ultimately sparked the Islamic Revolution of 1979 which, in turn, inspired fundamentalists throughout the Muslim world, including the Taliban and terrorists who thrived under its protection.
-
-
Hard to please
- By Rick on 09-25-04
By: Stephen Kinzer
-
A Thousand Hills
- Rwanda's Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It
- By: Stephen Kinzer
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Paul Kagame grew up as a wretched refugee. He and a group of comrades, determined to force their way back home after a generation of exile, designed one of the most audacious covert operations in the history of clandestine war. Then, after taking power, they amazed the world by stabilizing and reviving their devastated country.
-
-
Best Most Comprehensive Work on Rwanda
- By Greg on 07-30-10
By: Stephen Kinzer
-
Reset
- Iran, Turkey, and America's Future
- By: Stephen Kinzer
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What can the United States do to help realize its dream of a peaceful, democratic Middle East? Stephen Kinzer offers a surprising answer in this paradigm-shifting book. Two countries in the region, he argues, are America's logical partners in the 21st century: Turkey and Iran.
-
-
challenges stereotypes
- By R.S. on 06-14-10
By: Stephen Kinzer
-
Overthrow
- America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq
- By: Stephen Kinzer
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"Regime change" did not begin with the administration of George W. Bush, but has been an integral part of U.S. foreign policy for more than one hundred years. Starting with the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893 and continuing through the Spanish-American War and the Cold War and into our own time, the United States has not hesitated to overthrow governments that stood in the way of its political and economic goals.
-
-
Looking at the dark side
- By Stanley on 08-02-06
By: Stephen Kinzer
-
The Brothers
- John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War
- By: Stephen Kinzer
- Narrated by: David Cochran Heath
- Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
John Foster Dulles was secretary of state while his brother, Allen Dulles, was director of the Central Intelligence Agency. In this book, Stephen Kinzer places their extraordinary lives against the backdrop ofAmerican culture and history. He uses the framework of biography to ask: Why does the United States behave as it does in the world?
-
-
A duel biography
- By Jean on 09-26-14
By: Stephen Kinzer
-
Poisoner in Chief
- Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control
- By: Stephen Kinzer
- Narrated by: James Linkin
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The visionary chemist Sidney Gottlieb was the CIA’s master magician and gentlehearted torturer - the agency’s “poisoner in chief.” As head of the MK-ULTRA mind control project, he directed brutal experiments at secret prisons on three continents. He made pills, powders, and potions that could kill or maim without a trace - including some intended for Fidel Castro and other foreign leaders. He paid prostitutes to lure clients to CIA-run bordellos, where they were secretly dosed with mind-altering drugs. His experiments spread LSD across the United States.
-
-
Narration not great
- By VelvetLedbetter on 09-20-19
By: Stephen Kinzer
-
All the Shah's Men
- An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror
- By: Stephen Kinzer
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard, Jonathan Yen
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a cloak-and-dagger story of spies, saboteurs, and secret agents, Kinzer reveals the involvement of Eisenhower, Churchill, Kermit Roosevelt, and the CIA in Operation Ajax, which restored Mohammad Reza Shah to power. Reza imposed a tyranny that ultimately sparked the Islamic Revolution of 1979 which, in turn, inspired fundamentalists throughout the Muslim world, including the Taliban and terrorists who thrived under its protection.
-
-
Hard to please
- By Rick on 09-25-04
By: Stephen Kinzer
-
A Thousand Hills
- Rwanda's Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It
- By: Stephen Kinzer
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Paul Kagame grew up as a wretched refugee. He and a group of comrades, determined to force their way back home after a generation of exile, designed one of the most audacious covert operations in the history of clandestine war. Then, after taking power, they amazed the world by stabilizing and reviving their devastated country.
-
-
Best Most Comprehensive Work on Rwanda
- By Greg on 07-30-10
By: Stephen Kinzer
-
Reset
- Iran, Turkey, and America's Future
- By: Stephen Kinzer
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What can the United States do to help realize its dream of a peaceful, democratic Middle East? Stephen Kinzer offers a surprising answer in this paradigm-shifting book. Two countries in the region, he argues, are America's logical partners in the 21st century: Turkey and Iran.
-
-
challenges stereotypes
- By R.S. on 06-14-10
By: Stephen Kinzer
-
The Great Crash 1929
- By: John Kenneth Galbraith
- Narrated by: Brian Troxell
- Length: 6 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Of Galbraith's classic examination of the 1929 financial collapse, the Atlantic Monthly said, "Economic writings are seldom notable for their entertainment value, but this book is. Galbraith's prose has grace and wit, and he distills a good deal of sardonic fun from the whopping errors of the nation's oracles and the wondrous antics of the financial community." Now, with the stock market riding historic highs, the celebrated economist returns with new insights on the legacy of our past and the consequences of blind optimism and power plays within the financial community.
-
A Land So Strange
- The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca
- By: Andres Resendez
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 7 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1528, a mission set out from Spain to colonize Florida. But the expedition went horribly wrong: Delayed by a hurricane, knocked off course by a colossal error of navigation, and ultimately doomed by a disastrous decision to separate the men from their ships, the mission quickly became a desperate journey of survival. Of the 300 men who had embarked on the journey, only four survived - three Spaniards and an African slave.
-
-
A worthwhile listen
- By Blake on 07-10-13
By: Andres Resendez
-
Gangsters of Capitalism
- Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America's Empire
- By: Jonathan M. Katz
- Narrated by: Adam Barr
- Length: 14 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Smedley Butler was the most celebrated warfighter of his time. Best-selling books were written about him. Hollywood adored him. Wherever the flag went, “The Fighting Quaker” went - serving in nearly every major overseas conflict from the Spanish War of 1898 until the eve of World War II.
-
-
nostalgic melancholy sadness of yet another time
- By Robert Eaton Jr. on 01-29-22
By: Jonathan M. Katz
-
Cuba (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize)
- An American History
- By: Ada Ferrer
- Narrated by: Alma Cuervo, Ada Ferrer - prologue
- Length: 23 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1961, at the height of the Cold War, the United States severed diplomatic relations with Cuba, where a momentous revolution had taken power three years earlier. For more than half a century, the stand-off continued—through the tenure of ten American presidents and the fifty-year rule of Fidel Castro. His death in 2016, and the retirement of his brother and successor Raúl Castro in 2021, have spurred questions about the country’s future. Spanning more than five centuries, Cuba provides us with a front-row seat as we witness the evolution of the modern nation.
-
-
US Bash Job
- By Derek & Amber Witt on 04-14-22
By: Ada Ferrer
-
Stalin, Volume I
- Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928
- By: Stephen Kotkin
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 38 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Volume One of Stalin begins and ends in January 1928 as Stalin boards a train bound for Siberia, about to embark upon the greatest gamble of his political life. He is now the ruler of the largest country in the world, but a poor and backward one, far behind the great capitalist countries in industrial and military power, encircled on all sides. In Siberia, Stalin conceives of the largest program of social reengineering ever attempted.
-
-
Excellent Book But First Time Listener Beware
- By Nostromo on 03-23-15
By: Stephen Kotkin
-
The Ghost
- The Secret Life of CIA Spymaster James Jesus Angleton
- By: Jefferson Morley
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Ghost, investigative reporter Jefferson Morley tells Angleton's dramatic story, from his friendship with the poet Ezra Pound through the underground gay milieu of mid-century Washington to the Kennedy assassination to the Watergate scandal. From the agency's MKULTRA mind-control experiments to the wars of the Mideast, Angleton wielded far more power than anyone knew.
-
-
Flawed Superpatriot
- By Bubblehog on 11-23-17
By: Jefferson Morley
I would have put four stars down if not for the strident condemnation of imperialism by the author which clouds his objectivity which should be the hallmark of historical writing
War is bad
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
An Eye Opener!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Every American should read this book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Today's political atmosphere explained through History
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book is both insightful and depressing in that it showcases how the same false premises are used time and again to justify military action as a means of economic growth.
Truly a book I'd want any member of Congress- and the citizens that vote for them- to read!
Required to understand today's political world!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
In the beginning it's thoughtful and detailed with the nuances of turn of the 20th century activity.
But at the end we got a very broad brush overview of the sins of our fathers that I've heard a million times.
If you want to write a book about each of those conflicts with the same depth as you did this book, please do, until then.. Cut that chapter.
Starts off like Mark Twain, ends like Roosevelt
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
fitfully balanced needed more contrarian input fro
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The History of US Imperialism is long and bloody
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great history Documentary
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A fascinating window into USA history
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.