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Tightrope
- Americans Reaching for Hope
- Narrated by: Jennifer Garner, Nicholas D. Kristof, Sheryl WuDunn
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
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Publisher's summary
The Pulitzer Prize-winning authors of the acclaimed, best-selling Half the Sky now issue a plea - deeply personal and told through the lives of real Americans - to address the crisis in working-class America, while focusing on solutions to mend a half-century of governmental failure.
With stark poignancy and political dispassion, Tightrope draws us deep into an "other America". The authors tell this story, in part, through the lives of some of the children with whom Kristof grew up in rural Yamhill, Oregon, an area that prospered for much of the 20th century but has been devastated in the last few decades as blue-collar jobs disappeared. About one-quarter of the children on Kristof's old school bus died in adulthood from drugs, alcohol, suicide, or reckless accidents. And while these particular stories unfolded in one corner of the country, they are representative of many places the authors write about, ranging from the Dakotas and Oklahoma to New York and Virginia.
But here, too, are stories about resurgence, among them: Annette Dove, who has devoted her life to helping the teenagers of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, as they navigate the chaotic reality of growing up poor; Daniel McDowell, of Baltimore, whose tale of opioid addiction and recovery suggests that there are viable ways to solve our nation's drug epidemic. Taken together, these accounts provide a picture of working-class families needlessly but profoundly damaged as a result of decades of policy mistakes. With their superb, nuanced reportage, Kristof and WuDunn have given us a book that is both riveting and impossible to ignore.
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Story
Reniqua Allen tells the stories of Black millennials searching for a better future in spite of racist policies that have closed off traditional versions of success. Many watched their parents and grandparents play by the rules, only to sink deeper and deeper into debt. They witnessed their elders fight to escape cycles of oppression for more promising prospects, largely to no avail. Today, in this post-Obama era, they face a critical turning point. Interweaving her own experience, Allen shares surprising stories of hope and ingenuity.
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Great statistics and facts
- By Eve on 05-18-19
By: Reniqua Allen
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The South Side
- A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation
- By: Natalie Y. Moore
- Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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In this intelligent and highly important narrative, Chicago native Natalie Moore shines a light on contemporary segregation on the South Side of Chicago through reported essays, showing the lives of these communities through the stories of people who live in them. The South Side shows the important impact of Chicago's historic segregation and the ongoing policies that keep it that way.
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Eyeopening!
- By Ladybug on 09-07-16
By: Natalie Y. Moore
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Know Your Price
- Valuing Black Lives and Property in America’s Black Cities
- By: Andre M. Perry
- Narrated by: Leon Nixon
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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The deliberate devaluation of Blacks and their communities has had very real, far-reaching, and negative economic and social effects. An enduring white supremacist myth claims brutal conditions in Black communities are mainly the result of Black people's collective choices and moral failings. But there is nothing wrong with Black people that ending racism can't solve. Noted educator, journalist, and scholar Andre Perry takes listeners on a tour of six Black-majority cities whose assets and strengths are undervalued.
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More about Black lives than property
- By J. Craig on 04-13-22
By: Andre M. Perry
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Ain’t No Makin’ It
- Aspirations and Attainment in a Low-Income Neighborhood
- By: Jay MacLeod
- Narrated by: Christian Rummel
- Length: 20 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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This classic text addresses one of the most important issues in modern social theory and policy: how social inequality is reproduced from one generation to the next. With the original 1987 publication of Ain’t No Makin’ It Jay MacLeod brought us to the Clarendon Heights housing project where we met the "Brothers" and the "Hallway Hangers". Their story of poverty, race, and defeatism moved listeners and challenged ethnic stereotypes.
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A Classic Every American Should Read
- By JW on 02-02-19
By: Jay MacLeod
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One Child
- The Story of China's Most Radical Experiment
- By: Mei Fong
- Narrated by: Janet Song
- Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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When Communist Party leaders adopted the one-child policy in 1980, they hoped curbing birthrates would help lift China's poorest and increase the country's global stature. But at what cost? Now, as China closes the book on the policy after more than three decades, it faces a population grown too old and too male, with a vastly diminished supply of young workers. Mei Fong has spent years documenting the policy's repercussions on every sector of Chinese society.
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Best Book Club Discussion Ever!!
- By Rachael W. Schettenhelm on 05-01-17
By: Mei Fong
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American Dreams
- Restoring Economic Opportunity for Everyone
- By: Marco Rubio
- Narrated by: Ricardo Suri
- Length: 6 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Marco Rubio's parents came to the United States in 1956. The country they found was truly a land of opportunity, where hardworking people with grade school educations could afford a home, a car, and college for their kids. A country where maids and bartenders could raise doctors, lawyers, small-business owners, and maybe even a US senator. That was the American Dream - our country's central promise to its people.
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Comprehensive and compelling path for renewal.
- By gary on 06-03-15
By: Marco Rubio
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Disintegration
- The Splintering of Black America
- By: Eugene Robinson
- Narrated by: Alan Bomar Jones
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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The African American population in the United States has always been seen as a single entity: a "Black America" with unified interests and needs. In his groundbreaking book Disintegration, longtime Washington Post journalist Eugene Robinson argues that, through decades of desegregation, affirmative action, and immigration, the concept of Black America has shattered.
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Written for Popular Consumption
- By Catherine S. Read on 06-03-11
By: Eugene Robinson
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How We Can Win
- Race, History and Changing the Money Game That’s Rigged
- By: Kimberly Jones
- Narrated by: Kimberly Jones
- Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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In How We Can Win, Jones delves into the impacts of systemic racism and reveals how her formative years in Chicago gave birth to a lifelong devotion to justice. Here, in a vital expansion of her declaration, she calls for Reconstruction 2.0, a multilayered plan to reclaim economic and social restitutions - those restitutions promised with emancipation but blocked, again and again, for more than 150 years. And, most of all, Jones delivers strategies for how we can effect change as citizens and allies while nurturing ourselves in the fight against a system that is still rigged.
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Valid points made, but contradictory as well...
- By Julian C. Young on 01-28-22
By: Kimberly Jones
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America: The Farewell Tour
- By: Chris Hedges
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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America, says Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Chris Hedges, is convulsed by an array of pathologies that have arisen out of profound hopelessness, a bitter despair and a civil society that has ceased to function. The opioid crisis, the retreat into gambling to cope with economic distress, the pornification of culture, the rise of magical thinking, the celebration of sadism, hate, and plagues of suicides are the physical manifestations of a society that is being ravaged by corporate pillage and a failed democracy. All these ills presage a frightening reconfiguration of the nation and the planet.
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Terrible narrator for the book
- By H U Rehman on 10-01-18
By: Chris Hedges
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After America
- Get Ready for Armageddon
- By: Mark Steyn
- Narrated by: Mark Steyn
- Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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In his giant New York Times best seller, America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It, Mark Steyn predicted collapse for the rest of the Western World. Now, he adds, America has caught up with Europe on the great rush to self-destruction. What will a world without American leadership look like? It won’t be pretty—not for you and not for your children. America’s decline won’t be gradual, like an aging Europe sipping espresso at a café until extinction. No, America’s decline will be a wrenching affair marked by violence and possibly secession.
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Facts
- By Peter on 11-11-11
By: Mark Steyn
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The Conservative Heart
- How to Build a Fairer, Happier, and More Prosperous America
- By: Arthur C. Brooks
- Narrated by: P. J. Ochlan
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Conservative Heart, Arthur C. Brooks contends that after years of focusing on economic growth and traditional social values, it is time for a new kind of conservatism - one that helps the vulnerable without mortgaging our children's future. In Brooks' daring vision, this conservative movement fights poverty, promotes equal opportunity, celebrates earned success, and values spiritual enlightenment. It is an inclusive movement with a positive agenda to help people lead happier, more hopeful, and more satisfied lives.
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Outstanding recitation of conservatism!
- By GLENNO on 08-06-15
By: Arthur C. Brooks
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The End of Men
- And the Rise of Women
- By: Hanna Rosin
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Men have been the dominant sex since - well, the dawn of mankind. And yet, as journalist Hanna Rosin discovered, that long-held truth is no longer true. At this unprecedented moment, women are no longer merely gaining on men; they have pulled decisively ahead by almost every measure. Already "the end of men" - the phrase Rosin coined - has entered the lexicon as indelibly as Simone de Beauvoir’s "second sex", Betty Friedan’s "feminine mystique", Susan Faludi’s "backlash", and Naomi Wolf’s "beauty myth" have.
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Great book, don't care for the reader's style
- By Darren on 12-05-12
By: Hanna Rosin
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The Black Male Handbook
- A Blueprint for Life
- By: Kevin Powell
- Narrated by: Ezra Knight, Kevin R. Free, Glymph Glymph
- Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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An NAACP Image Award nominee, The Black Male Handbook is an impassioned call to end the problems facing today's Black men. Author and activist Kevin Powell offers insights on steering away from violence and toward a more responsible manhood. A new climate is rising in the Black community. Despite a shared thirst for cutting-edge opportunities and fresh directions, today's hiphop generation is still plagued by many long-standing problems.
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Awesome and very useful book.
- By Derek on 06-10-18
By: Kevin Powell
What listeners say about Tightrope
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Anonymous User
- 03-19-21
Comprehensive look on poverty in the US
I really got into this book. Jennifer Garner did a great job as a narrator and you could tell the author was very passionate about the topic. From what I understand, the families in the story are families he knew from his hometown so that added to his connection to the topic I think. This book focuses a lot on economics, which I coincidentally happen to be taking a macroeconomics course in college at the time of listening so it really tied the concepts together for me. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in social welfare.
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- marykk
- 06-30-21
A great companion to many of his op-ed pieces
When you read about these people you want to believe that their lives are the result of just poor choices and Kristoff does acknowledge that many of his friends ended up as they did due to choices. But he also explains that choices are only one reason for the sad lives of his Yamhill friends and it's a good study what has gone wrong with American society over the years. Admittedly it's a depressing read but also an important one to understand history and current events.
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- Kate
- 12-23-21
Tightrope
This will be a Kristof/WuDunn semester for me and my college students. Studying national and international conditions for marginalized communities, this book, along with Half the sky and A path, appears will give students an understanding of some of the challenging topics confronting people suffering from social and occupational injustice, changing social conditions, inhumanity, and humanity. It is my hope that students’ eyes will be open to these issues and work enact positive social change.
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- janine7213
- 11-27-23
Poverty in America
I like the the generational point of view of poverty and simple ideas on how Americans can fixed or reduce poverty.
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- Pandora
- 01-24-21
One of the best books I've read. Beautifully done.
Evidence based, grounded in the data, all in a story-driven format that treats the people who opened up their lives with honesty, dignity, and respect. If everyone read this book, we'd have a shared understanding of the intergenerational tightrope walked by our fellow Americans. This shared understanding is the first step to conversations on what to do about this situation long term -- something that the authors helpfully summarize after exploring these solutions within the book in the brief appendix titled 10 Steps You Can Take in the Next Ten Minutes. The book goes into all the reasons, stories, and details that roll up to this part and it left me with more compassion, gratitude, and desire to help in a way I know will make an actual impact and meaningful difference after reading the personal stories in this book from my fellow Americans. Enjoy leveling up your mindset and impact.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Martin Gugino
- 02-06-21
It is Nicholas Kristof so you won't be happy
How the other half lives. Our failure to see that the blessings of liberty protect the lives of kids whose parents got blindsided. Kids are falling through the cracks. No that's not it exactly. It is more like we ignored what Jonathan Kozol said and hoped that a rising tide would lift all boats. Life does not work like that. Capitalism at least does not work like that. It can still be hesrt breaking. Read it and weep.
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- Kamna
- 03-08-20
A must read!
Heart wrenching, eye opening, shocking and humbling.
While non fiction, this reads like an engaging novel.
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- Joy Schieferstein
- 03-24-22
Joy review
loved it learned so much I hope others listen and learn. All fact based information.
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- Kim T.
- 04-25-23
A must read
I found this book very pertinent to this day and age. So much so I bought several hard copies and shared them with colleagues and friends.
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- Amazon Customer
- 01-30-20
AMAZING
A must read! Everything that is holding is back is FIXABLE! Unless we start to address the issues that most people are making their money off of we will ALL fail! We are ALL a part of the problem.....but we can ALL fix the problems as well.... we ALL need to give a shit! We can’t do it alone!
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7 people found this helpful