Up Against the Wall
The Case for Opening the Mexican-American Border
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 $24.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Peter Laufer
-
By:
-
Peter Laufer
About this listen
The audiobook offers a step-by-step blueprint of radical proposals for the US-Mexican border that go far beyond traditional initiatives to ease restrictions on immigration. The audiobook argues that the border with Mexico should be completely open for Mexicans wishing to travel north.
Up Against the Wall provides the background to understanding how the border has become a fraud, resulting in nothing more than the criminalization of Mexican and other migrants, the bloating of the mismanaged US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the deterioration of living standards along the frontier, and the enrichment of American employers.
Placing the border in a historical perspective, Laufer shows how circumstances have deteriorated to the present Trump-exacerbated crisis, and why the region and the migration through it cannot be ignored. Over the last several years, he has interviewed dozens of authorities and people in the streets while reporting from Mexico, along the border, and in the United States. He demonstrates that the security of America's southern border is a fallacy and offers vivid examples to illustrate how the chain of misery and lawbreaking for migrants heading north is initiated by US employers, traces many of the border problems to the Guatemalan-Mexican border, and explores the abuses of the Border Patrol and the growing presence of vigilantes on the American side.
Up Against the Wall is sure to provoke a lively debate over the future of Mexican immigration and global migration crises.
©2020 Peter Laufer (P)2021 Peter LauferListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Long Slide
- Thirty Years in American Journalism
- By: Tucker Carlson
- Narrated by: Tucker Carlson
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thirty years ago, Tucker Carlson got his first job out of college fact-checking for a quarterly magazine, and he went on to write for many other publications before becoming the primetime Fox News host he is today. In The Long Slide, Tucker delivers a few of his favorite pieces - annotated with new commentary and insight - to memorialize the tolerance and diversity of thought that the media used to celebrate instead of punish.
-
-
Tucker does it again
- By JOE SWOLE on 08-10-21
By: Tucker Carlson
-
My Life on the Road
- By: Gloria Steinem
- Narrated by: Debra Winger, Gloria Steinem
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Gloria Steinem - writer, activist, organizer, and one of the most inspiring leaders in the world - now tells a story she has never told before, a candid account of how her early years led her to live an on-the-road kind of life, traveling, listening to people, learning, and creating change. She reveals the story of her own growth in tandem with the growth of an ongoing movement for equality. This is the story at the heart of My Life on the Road.
-
-
Completely Changed Me
- By Angel Adams on 11-05-15
By: Gloria Steinem
-
Age of Ambition
- Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China
- By: Evan Osnos
- Narrated by: Evan Osnos, George Backman
- Length: 16 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As the Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker, Evan Osnos was on the ground in China for years, witness to profound political, economic, and cultural upheaval. In Age of Ambition, he describes the greatest collision taking place in that country: the clash between the rise of the individual and the Communist Party’s struggle to retain control.
-
-
Come back when you have a warrant!
- By Neuron on 11-06-15
By: Evan Osnos
-
The Lies They Tell
- By: Tuvia Tenenbom
- Narrated by: Shlomo Zacks
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The USA is the world's empire and its actions will influence us all for generations to come. But who are the Americans, the people who make up America? Tuvia Tenenbom travels through America to find out. His wanderings take him across regional frontiers, partisan lines, and socioeconomic boundaries in a fearless quest for the flesh-and-blood American. The characters he encounters, the adventures he eagerly embraces, and the findings of his journey are always unique and often unexpected.
-
-
real life Borat
- By Dougieb on 01-15-20
By: Tuvia Tenenbom
-
The Unwinding
- An Inner History of the New America
- By: George Packer
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 18 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Unwinding, George Packer, author of The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq, tells the story of the United States over the past three decades in an utterly original way, with his characteristically sharp eye for detail and gift for weaving together complex narratives. The Unwinding portrays a superpower in danger of coming apart at the seams, its elites no longer elite, its institutions no longer working, its ordinary people left to improvise their own schemes for success and salvation.
-
-
Can't understand the low ratings!
- By Janet Pittman Henley on 05-27-13
By: George Packer
-
God Save Texas
- A Journey into the Soul of the Lone Star State
- By: Lawrence Wright
- Narrated by: Lawrence Wright
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
God Save Texas is a journey through the most controversial state in America. It is a red state, but the cities are blue and among the most diverse in the nation. Oil is still king, but Texas now leads California in technology exports. Low taxes and minimal regulation has produced extraordinary growth, but also striking income disparities. Texas looks a lot like the America that Donald Trump wants to create. Texas native Lawrence Wright gives us a colorful, wide-ranging portrait of a state that not only reflects our country as it is, but as it may become.
-
-
The best book about Texas
- By Jake Salinas on 06-07-18
By: Lawrence Wright
-
The Long Slide
- Thirty Years in American Journalism
- By: Tucker Carlson
- Narrated by: Tucker Carlson
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thirty years ago, Tucker Carlson got his first job out of college fact-checking for a quarterly magazine, and he went on to write for many other publications before becoming the primetime Fox News host he is today. In The Long Slide, Tucker delivers a few of his favorite pieces - annotated with new commentary and insight - to memorialize the tolerance and diversity of thought that the media used to celebrate instead of punish.
-
-
Tucker does it again
- By JOE SWOLE on 08-10-21
By: Tucker Carlson
-
My Life on the Road
- By: Gloria Steinem
- Narrated by: Debra Winger, Gloria Steinem
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Gloria Steinem - writer, activist, organizer, and one of the most inspiring leaders in the world - now tells a story she has never told before, a candid account of how her early years led her to live an on-the-road kind of life, traveling, listening to people, learning, and creating change. She reveals the story of her own growth in tandem with the growth of an ongoing movement for equality. This is the story at the heart of My Life on the Road.
-
-
Completely Changed Me
- By Angel Adams on 11-05-15
By: Gloria Steinem
-
Age of Ambition
- Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China
- By: Evan Osnos
- Narrated by: Evan Osnos, George Backman
- Length: 16 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As the Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker, Evan Osnos was on the ground in China for years, witness to profound political, economic, and cultural upheaval. In Age of Ambition, he describes the greatest collision taking place in that country: the clash between the rise of the individual and the Communist Party’s struggle to retain control.
-
-
Come back when you have a warrant!
- By Neuron on 11-06-15
By: Evan Osnos
-
The Lies They Tell
- By: Tuvia Tenenbom
- Narrated by: Shlomo Zacks
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The USA is the world's empire and its actions will influence us all for generations to come. But who are the Americans, the people who make up America? Tuvia Tenenbom travels through America to find out. His wanderings take him across regional frontiers, partisan lines, and socioeconomic boundaries in a fearless quest for the flesh-and-blood American. The characters he encounters, the adventures he eagerly embraces, and the findings of his journey are always unique and often unexpected.
-
-
real life Borat
- By Dougieb on 01-15-20
By: Tuvia Tenenbom
-
The Unwinding
- An Inner History of the New America
- By: George Packer
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 18 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Unwinding, George Packer, author of The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq, tells the story of the United States over the past three decades in an utterly original way, with his characteristically sharp eye for detail and gift for weaving together complex narratives. The Unwinding portrays a superpower in danger of coming apart at the seams, its elites no longer elite, its institutions no longer working, its ordinary people left to improvise their own schemes for success and salvation.
-
-
Can't understand the low ratings!
- By Janet Pittman Henley on 05-27-13
By: George Packer
-
God Save Texas
- A Journey into the Soul of the Lone Star State
- By: Lawrence Wright
- Narrated by: Lawrence Wright
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
God Save Texas is a journey through the most controversial state in America. It is a red state, but the cities are blue and among the most diverse in the nation. Oil is still king, but Texas now leads California in technology exports. Low taxes and minimal regulation has produced extraordinary growth, but also striking income disparities. Texas looks a lot like the America that Donald Trump wants to create. Texas native Lawrence Wright gives us a colorful, wide-ranging portrait of a state that not only reflects our country as it is, but as it may become.
-
-
The best book about Texas
- By Jake Salinas on 06-07-18
By: Lawrence Wright
-
Our Women on the Ground
- Essays by Arab Women Reporting from the Arab World
- By: Zahra Hankir, Christiane Amanpour
- Narrated by: Soneela Nankani
- Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A growing number of intrepid Arab and Middle Eastern sahafiyat - female journalists - are working tirelessly to shape nuanced narratives about their changing homelands, often risking their lives on the front lines of war. From sexual harassment on the streets of Cairo to the difficulty of traveling without a male relative in Yemen, their challenges are unique - as are their advantages, such as being able to speak candidly with other women at a Syrian medical clinic or with men on Whatsapp who will go on to become ISIS fighters, rebels, or pro-regime soldiers.
-
-
Compelling stories everyone should hear
- By K.Ozcelik on 06-28-23
By: Zahra Hankir, and others
-
Methland
- The Death and Life of an American Small Town
- By: Nick Reding
- Narrated by: Mark Boyett
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Crystal methamphetamine is widely considered to be the most dangerous drug in the world, and nowhere is that more true than in the small towns of the American heartland. Methland tells the story of Oelwein, Iowa (pop. 6,159), which, like thousands of other small towns across the country, has been left in the dust by the consolidation of the agricultural industry, a depressed local economy, and an out-migration of people.
-
-
Beautifully written, but insubstantial
- By Flavius Krakdaddius on 02-10-10
By: Nick Reding
-
Travel as a Political Act
- By: Rick Steves
- Narrated by: Rick Steves
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With the world facing divisive events and movements like the rise of nationalism, Trump, Brexit, Erdogan, and more, there's never been a more important time to travel. Rick believes the risks of travel are widely exaggerated, and that fear is for people who don't get out much. After years of living out of a suitcase, he still marvels at how different cultures may find different truths to be self-evident. By sharing his experiences from Europe, Central America, Asia, and the Middle East, Rick shows how we can learn more about own country by viewing it from afar.
-
-
Powerful
- By Caralyn on 08-06-18
By: Rick Steves
-
Once I Was You
- A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America
- By: Maria Hinojosa
- Narrated by: Maria Hinojosa
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Maria Hinojosa is an award-winning journalist who, for nearly 30 years, has reported on stories and communities in America that often go ignored by the mainstream media - from tales of hope in the South Bronx to the unseen victims of the war on terror and the first detention camps in the US. Best-selling author Julia Álvarez has called her “one of the most important, respected, and beloved cultural leaders in the Latinx community”. In Once I Was You, Maria shares her intimate experience growing up Mexican American on the South Side of Chicago.
-
-
Fabulous!!
- By andrea L. on 01-13-21
By: Maria Hinojosa
-
China Road
- A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power
- By: Rob Gifford
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
National Public Radio's Beijing correspondent Rob Gifford recounts his travels along Route 312, the Chinese Mother Road, the longest route in the world's most populous nation. Based on his successful NPR radio series, China Road draws on Gifford's 20 years of observing first-hand this rapidly transforming country, as he travels east to west, from Shanghai to China's border with Kazakhstan. As he takes listeners on this journey, he also takes them through China's past and present while he tries to make sense of this complex nation's potential future.
-
-
An Outstanding Book on China
- By Sarda on 08-13-07
By: Rob Gifford
-
China's Second Continent
- How a Million Migrants Are Building a New Empire in Africa
- By: Howard W. French
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An exciting, hugely revealing account of China’s burgeoning presence in Africa - a developing empire already shaping, and reshaping, the future of millions of people. A prizewinning foreign correspondent and former New York Times bureau chief in Shanghai and in West and Central Africa, Howard French is uniquely positioned to tell the story of China in Africa. Through meticulous on-the-ground reporting, French crafts a layered investigation of astonishing depth and breadth.
-
-
He knows Both Africa and China
- By Malick Tchakpedeou on 12-01-16
By: Howard W. French
-
Mitch, Please!
- How Mitch McConnell Sold Out Kentucky (and America Too)
- By: Matt Jones, Chris Tomlin - contributor
- Narrated by: Matt Jones, Chris Tomlin
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
They say all politics is local. In 2020, Mitch McConnell will have served five full terms as a US Senator. Thirty years. The Senate Majority leader's power is as undeniable as it is infuriating, and the people of Kentucky have had enough. Led by Matt Jones, they (and they alone) have the power to oust him from office. How did Jones, a local boy turned attorney turned sports radio host come to shine the brightest light on McConnell's ineptitude?
-
-
Amazing
- By Danielle Purcell on 04-10-20
By: Matt Jones, and others
-
The Great Escape
- A True Story of Forced Labor and Immigrant Dreams in America
- By: Saket Soni
- Narrated by: Saket Soni
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In late 2006, Saket Soni, a 28-year-old, Indian-born community organizer received an anonymous phone call from an Indian migrant worker inside a Mississippi labor camp. He and 500 other men were living in squalor in Gulf Coast “man camps,” surrounded by barbed wire, watched by armed guards, crammed into cold trailers with putrid portable toilets, forced to eat moldy bread and frozen rice. Worse, lured by the promise of good work and green cards, the men had desperately scraped together up to $20,000 each to apply for this “opportunity”.
-
-
Riveting!
- By Susan M. Lewis on 10-18-23
By: Saket Soni
-
Three Tigers, One Mountain
- A Journey Through the Bitter History and Current Conflicts of China, Korea, and Japan
- By: Michael Booth
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There is an ancient Chinese proverb that states, "Two tigers cannot share the same mountain." However, in East Asia, there are three tigers on that mountain: China, Japan, and Korea, and they have a long history of turmoil and tension with each other. In his latest entertaining and thought-provoking narrative travelogue, Michael Booth sets out to discover how deep, really, the enmity is between these three "tiger" nations and what prevents them from making peace.
-
-
Not much new here if you are already familiar
- By Neil Richert on 07-13-20
By: Michael Booth
-
Overground Railroad
- The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America
- By: Candacy Taylor
- Narrated by: Lisa Reneé Pitts
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first book to explore the historical role and residual impact of the Green Book, a travel guide for Black motorists.
-
-
Narrator destroyed this for me! read it instead
- By purpleprose on 10-16-22
By: Candacy Taylor
-
The Brothers
- The Road to an American Tragedy
- By: Masha Gessen
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On April 15, 2013, two homemade bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston marathon, killing three people and wounding more than 264 others. In the ensuing manhunt, Tamerlan Tsarnaev died, and his younger brother, Dzhokhar, was captured and ultimately charged on 30 federal counts. Yet long after the bombings and the terror they sowed, after all the testimony and debate, what we still haven't learned is why. Why did the American dream go so wrong for two immigrants?
-
-
Worth the time
- By MadeYouLook on 02-08-19
By: Masha Gessen
-
In Pursuit of Disobedient Women
- A Memoir of Love, Rebellion, and Family, Far Away
- By: Dionne Searcey
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2015, Dionne Searcey was covering the economy for The New York Times, living in Brooklyn with her husband and three young children. Saddled with the demands of a dual-career household and motherhood in an urban setting, her life was in a rut. She decided to pursue a job as the paper’s West Africa bureau chief, an amazing but daunting opportunity to cover a swath of territory encompassing two dozen countries and 500 million people. Landing with her family in Dakar, Senegal, she quickly found their lives turned upside-down as they struggled to figure out their place.
-
-
A journalist's memoir
- By still reading on 07-26-20
By: Dionne Searcey
Related to this topic
-
Midnight in Mexico
- A Reporter's Journey through a Country's Descent into Darkness
- By: Alfredo Corchado
- Narrated by: Timothy Andres Pabon
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Noted Mexican American journalist Alfredo Corchado refuses to shrink from reporting on government corruption, murders in Juarez, or the ruthless drug cartels of Mexico. One night, Corchado received a tip that he could be the next target of the Zetas, a violent paramilitary group - and that he had 24 hours to find out if the threat was true. Midnight in Mexico is the story of one man's quest to report the truth of his country - as he races to save his own life.
-
-
Fascinating & suspenseful historical non-fiction!
- By Ruth Barrie on 06-30-19
By: Alfredo Corchado
-
The Shanghai Free Taxi
- Journeys with the Hustlers and Rebels of the New China
- By: Frank Langfitt
- Narrated by: Frank Langfitt
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this adventurous, original book, NPR correspondent Frank Langfitt describes how he created a free taxi service - offering rides in exchange for illuminating conversation - to go beyond the headlines and get to know a wide range of colorful, compelling characters representative of the new China. They include folks like "Beer", a slippery salesman who tries to sell Langfitt a used car; Rocky, a farm boy turned Shanghai lawyer; and Chen, who runs an underground Christian church and moves his family to America in search of a better, freer life.
-
-
Too political
- By dah551 on 06-26-19
By: Frank Langfitt
-
The Buried
- An Archaeology of the Egyptian Revolution
- By: Peter Hessler
- Narrated by: Peter Hessler
- Length: 16 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawn by a fascination with Egypt's rich history and culture, Peter Hessler moved with his wife and twin daughters to Cairo in 2011. He wanted to learn Arabic, explore Cairo's neighborhoods, and visit the legendary archaeological digs of Upper Egypt. After his years of covering China for The New Yorker, friends warned him Egypt would be a much quieter place. But not long before he arrived, the Egyptian Arab Spring had begun, and now the country was in chaos.
-
-
A Fascinating, Funny, and Moving Account of Egypt
- By Jefferson on 07-23-19
By: Peter Hessler
-
This Land Is Our Land
- An Immigrant's Manifesto
- By: Suketu Mehta
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam
- Length: 7 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A timely argument for why the US and the West would benefit from accepting more immigrants. Impassioned, rigorous, and richly stocked with memorable stories and characters, This Land Is Our Land is a timely and necessary intervention and a literary polemic of the highest order.
-
-
Greatly informative. wonderful narrated
- By ADEDZWA Dooyum Sartor on 06-29-19
By: Suketu Mehta
-
Strange Stones
- By: Peter Hessler
- Narrated by: George Backman
- Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Full of unforgettable figures and an unrelenting spirit of adventure, Strange Stones is a far-ranging, thought-provoking collection of Peter Hessler’s best reportage - a dazzling display of the powerful storytelling, shrewd cultural insight, and warm sense of humor that are the trademarks of his work. Over the last decade, as a staff writer for The New Yorker and the author of three books, Peter Hessler has lived in Asia and the United States, writing as both native and knowledgeable outsider in these two very different regions.
-
-
funny, entertaining
- By Katherine on 08-02-13
By: Peter Hessler
-
The Beast
- Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail
- By: Oscar Martinez, Francisco Goldman - introduction, Daniela Maria Ugaz - translator, and others
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One day a few years ago, 300 migrants were kidnapped between the remote desert towns of Altar, Mexico, and Sasabe, Arizona. A local priest got 120 released, many with broken ankles and other marks of abuse, but the rest vanished. Óscar Martinez, a young writer from El Salvador, was in Altar soon after the abduction, and his account of the migrant disappearances is only one of the harrowing stories he garnered from two years spent traveling up and down the migrant trail from Central America and across the US border.
-
-
Phony accents
- By Gina on 05-17-22
By: Oscar Martinez, and others
-
Midnight in Mexico
- A Reporter's Journey through a Country's Descent into Darkness
- By: Alfredo Corchado
- Narrated by: Timothy Andres Pabon
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Noted Mexican American journalist Alfredo Corchado refuses to shrink from reporting on government corruption, murders in Juarez, or the ruthless drug cartels of Mexico. One night, Corchado received a tip that he could be the next target of the Zetas, a violent paramilitary group - and that he had 24 hours to find out if the threat was true. Midnight in Mexico is the story of one man's quest to report the truth of his country - as he races to save his own life.
-
-
Fascinating & suspenseful historical non-fiction!
- By Ruth Barrie on 06-30-19
By: Alfredo Corchado
-
The Shanghai Free Taxi
- Journeys with the Hustlers and Rebels of the New China
- By: Frank Langfitt
- Narrated by: Frank Langfitt
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this adventurous, original book, NPR correspondent Frank Langfitt describes how he created a free taxi service - offering rides in exchange for illuminating conversation - to go beyond the headlines and get to know a wide range of colorful, compelling characters representative of the new China. They include folks like "Beer", a slippery salesman who tries to sell Langfitt a used car; Rocky, a farm boy turned Shanghai lawyer; and Chen, who runs an underground Christian church and moves his family to America in search of a better, freer life.
-
-
Too political
- By dah551 on 06-26-19
By: Frank Langfitt
-
The Buried
- An Archaeology of the Egyptian Revolution
- By: Peter Hessler
- Narrated by: Peter Hessler
- Length: 16 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawn by a fascination with Egypt's rich history and culture, Peter Hessler moved with his wife and twin daughters to Cairo in 2011. He wanted to learn Arabic, explore Cairo's neighborhoods, and visit the legendary archaeological digs of Upper Egypt. After his years of covering China for The New Yorker, friends warned him Egypt would be a much quieter place. But not long before he arrived, the Egyptian Arab Spring had begun, and now the country was in chaos.
-
-
A Fascinating, Funny, and Moving Account of Egypt
- By Jefferson on 07-23-19
By: Peter Hessler
-
This Land Is Our Land
- An Immigrant's Manifesto
- By: Suketu Mehta
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam
- Length: 7 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A timely argument for why the US and the West would benefit from accepting more immigrants. Impassioned, rigorous, and richly stocked with memorable stories and characters, This Land Is Our Land is a timely and necessary intervention and a literary polemic of the highest order.
-
-
Greatly informative. wonderful narrated
- By ADEDZWA Dooyum Sartor on 06-29-19
By: Suketu Mehta
-
Strange Stones
- By: Peter Hessler
- Narrated by: George Backman
- Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Full of unforgettable figures and an unrelenting spirit of adventure, Strange Stones is a far-ranging, thought-provoking collection of Peter Hessler’s best reportage - a dazzling display of the powerful storytelling, shrewd cultural insight, and warm sense of humor that are the trademarks of his work. Over the last decade, as a staff writer for The New Yorker and the author of three books, Peter Hessler has lived in Asia and the United States, writing as both native and knowledgeable outsider in these two very different regions.
-
-
funny, entertaining
- By Katherine on 08-02-13
By: Peter Hessler
-
The Beast
- Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail
- By: Oscar Martinez, Francisco Goldman - introduction, Daniela Maria Ugaz - translator, and others
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One day a few years ago, 300 migrants were kidnapped between the remote desert towns of Altar, Mexico, and Sasabe, Arizona. A local priest got 120 released, many with broken ankles and other marks of abuse, but the rest vanished. Óscar Martinez, a young writer from El Salvador, was in Altar soon after the abduction, and his account of the migrant disappearances is only one of the harrowing stories he garnered from two years spent traveling up and down the migrant trail from Central America and across the US border.
-
-
Phony accents
- By Gina on 05-17-22
By: Oscar Martinez, and others
-
Erdogan Rising
- The Battle for the Soul of Turkey
- By: Hannah Lucinda Smith
- Narrated by: Hannah Lucinda Smith
- Length: 14 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everyone has heard of Erdogan: Turkey’s bullish, mercurial president is the original postmodern populist. Around the world, other strongmen are now following the path that he has blazed. For the first time, Erdogan Rising tells the inside story of how a democracy on the fringe of Europe has succumbed to dictatorship. Hannah Lucinda Smith, Turkey correspondent with The Times of London, has witnessed all that has befallen Turkey and the wider region since the onset of the Arab Spring.
-
-
Overall fascinating profile of Erdogan’s Turkey
- By Saul M on 09-18-20
-
The Cubans
- Ordinary Lives in Extraordinary Times
- By: Anthony DePalma
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean, Anthony DePalma
- Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cubans today, most of whom have lived their entire lives under the Castro regime, are hesitantly embracing the future. In his new book, Anthony DePalma, a veteran reporter with years of experience in Cuba, focuses on a neighborhood across the harbor from Old Havana to dramatize the optimism as well as the enormous challenges that Cubans face: a moving snapshot of Cuba with all its contradictions as the new regime opens the gate to the capitalism that Fidel railed against for so long.
-
-
The real Cuba
- By Tinkerbell on 10-11-20
By: Anthony DePalma
-
Age of Ambition
- Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China
- By: Evan Osnos
- Narrated by: Evan Osnos, George Backman
- Length: 16 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As the Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker, Evan Osnos was on the ground in China for years, witness to profound political, economic, and cultural upheaval. In Age of Ambition, he describes the greatest collision taking place in that country: the clash between the rise of the individual and the Communist Party’s struggle to retain control.
-
-
Come back when you have a warrant!
- By Neuron on 11-06-15
By: Evan Osnos
-
No Escape
- The True Story of China's Genocide of the Uyghurs
- By: Nury Turkel
- Narrated by: Stewart Lang
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A powerful memoir by Nury Turkel lays bare China’s repression of the Uyghur people. Turkel is cofounder and board chair of the Uyghur Human Rights Project and a commissioner for the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.
-
-
Powerfully Provocative
- By Amazon Customer on 06-01-22
By: Nury Turkel
-
China Road
- A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power
- By: Rob Gifford
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
National Public Radio's Beijing correspondent Rob Gifford recounts his travels along Route 312, the Chinese Mother Road, the longest route in the world's most populous nation. Based on his successful NPR radio series, China Road draws on Gifford's 20 years of observing first-hand this rapidly transforming country, as he travels east to west, from Shanghai to China's border with Kazakhstan. As he takes listeners on this journey, he also takes them through China's past and present while he tries to make sense of this complex nation's potential future.
-
-
An Outstanding Book on China
- By Sarda on 08-13-07
By: Rob Gifford
-
On the Plain of Snakes
- By: Paul Theroux
- Narrated by: Joseph Balderrama
- Length: 19 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nogales is a border town caught between Mexico and the United States of America. A 40-foot steel fence runs through its centre, separating the prosperous US side from the impoverished Mexican side. It is a fascinating site of tension, now more than ever, as the town fills with hopeful border crossers and the deportees who have been caught and brought back. And it is here that Paul Theroux will begin his journey into the culturally rich but troubled heart of modern Mexico.
-
-
A pedantic, poorly narrated, 20 hour lecture
- By Birdshot on 11-16-19
By: Paul Theroux
-
Mitch, Please!
- How Mitch McConnell Sold Out Kentucky (and America Too)
- By: Matt Jones, Chris Tomlin - contributor
- Narrated by: Matt Jones, Chris Tomlin
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
They say all politics is local. In 2020, Mitch McConnell will have served five full terms as a US Senator. Thirty years. The Senate Majority leader's power is as undeniable as it is infuriating, and the people of Kentucky have had enough. Led by Matt Jones, they (and they alone) have the power to oust him from office. How did Jones, a local boy turned attorney turned sports radio host come to shine the brightest light on McConnell's ineptitude?
-
-
Amazing
- By Danielle Purcell on 04-10-20
By: Matt Jones, and others
-
India
- A Portrait
- By: Patrick French
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 17 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Second only to China in the magnitude of its economic miracle and second to none in its potential to shape the new century, India is fast undergoing one of the most momentous transformations the world has ever seen. In this dazzlingly panoramic book, Patrick French chronicles that epic change, telling human stories to explain a larger national narrative. Melding on-the-ground reports with a deep knowledge of history, French exposes the cultural foundations of India’s political, economic and social complexities.
-
-
An Epic Book by Award-Winning Author
- By morton on 10-31-11
By: Patrick French
-
Three Tigers, One Mountain
- A Journey Through the Bitter History and Current Conflicts of China, Korea, and Japan
- By: Michael Booth
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There is an ancient Chinese proverb that states, "Two tigers cannot share the same mountain." However, in East Asia, there are three tigers on that mountain: China, Japan, and Korea, and they have a long history of turmoil and tension with each other. In his latest entertaining and thought-provoking narrative travelogue, Michael Booth sets out to discover how deep, really, the enmity is between these three "tiger" nations and what prevents them from making peace.
-
-
Not much new here if you are already familiar
- By Neil Richert on 07-13-20
By: Michael Booth
-
China's Second Continent
- How a Million Migrants Are Building a New Empire in Africa
- By: Howard W. French
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An exciting, hugely revealing account of China’s burgeoning presence in Africa - a developing empire already shaping, and reshaping, the future of millions of people. A prizewinning foreign correspondent and former New York Times bureau chief in Shanghai and in West and Central Africa, Howard French is uniquely positioned to tell the story of China in Africa. Through meticulous on-the-ground reporting, French crafts a layered investigation of astonishing depth and breadth.
-
-
He knows Both Africa and China
- By Malick Tchakpedeou on 12-01-16
By: Howard W. French
-
Where the West Ends
- Stories from the Middle East, the Balkans, the Black Sea, and the Caucasus
- By: Michael J. Totten
- Narrated by: Steven Roy Grimsley
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Prize-winning author Michael J. Totten returns with a masterpiece of travel writing and history in this journey through 13 nations - all but two formerly communist - just beyond the edge of the West where few casual travelers venture. His work as an independent foreign correspondent takes him deep into the field beyond the sensational headlines, from his hilariously miserable road trip with his best friend to Iraq to the Wild West of Albania, the most bizarre country in Europe; from the killing fields in Bosnia and Kosovo to a Romania haunted by the ghosts of its communist past.
-
-
Not a right wing fanatic
- By Love on 12-11-13
-
The Address Book
- What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power
- By: Deirdre Mask
- Narrated by: Janina Edwards
- Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An exuberant and insightful work of popular history of how streets got their names, houses their numbers, and what it reveals about class, race, power, and identity. When most people think about street addresses, if they think of them at all, it is in their capacity to ensure that the postman can deliver mail or a traveler won’t get lost. But street addresses were not invented to help you find your way; they were created to find you. In many parts of the world, your address can reveal your race and class.
-
-
Simply OK
- By CJFLA on 07-18-20
By: Deirdre Mask