When Crack Was King
A People's History of a Misunderstood Era
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 $20.25
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Donovan X. Ramsey
About this listen
LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • A “vivid and frank” (NPR) account of the crack cocaine era and a community’s ultimate resilience, told through a cast of characters whose lives illuminate the dramatic rise and fall of the epidemic
“A master class in disrupting a stubborn narrative, a monumental feat for the fraught subject of addiction in Black communities.”—The Washington Post
“A poignant and compelling re-examination of a tragic era in America history . . . insightful . . . and deeply moving.”—Bryan Stevenson, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Just Mercy
FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD • ONE OF THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY AND VULTURE’S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Time, The Washington Post, NPR, Chicago Public Library, Publishers Weekly, She Reads, Electric Lit, The Mary Sue
The crack epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s is arguably the least examined crisis in American history. Beginning with the myths inspired by Reagan’s war on drugs, journalist Donovan X. Ramsey’s exacting analysis traces the path from the last triumphs of the Civil Rights Movement to the devastating realities we live with today: a racist criminal justice system, continued mass incarceration and gentrification, and increased police brutality.
When Crack Was King follows four individuals to give us a startling portrait of crack’s destruction and devastating legacy: Elgin Swift, an archetype of American industry and ambition and the son of a crack-addicted father who turned their home into a “crack house”; Lennie Woodley, a former crack addict and sex worker; Kurt Schmoke, the longtime mayor of Baltimore and an early advocate of decriminalization; and Shawn McCray, community activist, basketball prodigy, and a founding member of the Zoo Crew, Newark’s most legendary group of drug traffickers.
Weaving together riveting research with the voices of survivors, When Crack Was King is a crucial reevaluation of the era and a powerful argument for providing historically violated communities with the resources they deserve.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
I Saw Death Coming
- A History of Terror and Survival in the War Against Reconstruction
- By: Kidada E. Williams
- Narrated by: Karen Chilton
- Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In I Saw Death Coming, Kidada E. Williams offers a breakthrough account of the much-debated Reconstruction period, transporting listeners into the daily existence of formerly enslaved people building hope-filled new lives.
-
-
Underrepresented piece of history
- By James O'Hanlon on 07-05-23
-
Life Sentence
- The Brief and Tragic Career of Baltimore’s Deadliest Gang Leader
- By: Mark Bowden
- Narrated by: L.J. Ganser
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this unprecedented deep dive into inner-city gang life, Mark Bowden takes listeners inside a Baltimore gang, offers an in-depth portrait of its notorious leader, and chronicles the 2016 FBI investigation that landed eight gang members in prison.
-
-
Good book, but needs to be re-cast.
- By Carey Chiaia on 06-08-23
By: Mark Bowden
-
Fear Is Just a Word
- A Missing Daughter, a Violent Cartel, and a Mother's Quest for Vengeance
- By: Azam Ahmed
- Narrated by: Sheldon Romero
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fear Is Just a Word begins on an international bridge between Mexico and the United States, as fifty-six-year-old Miriam Rodríguez stalks one of the men she believes was involved in the murder of her daughter Karen. He is her target number eleven, a member of the drug cartel that has terrorized and controlled what was once Miriam’s quiet hometown of San Fernando, Mexico, almost one hundred miles from the U.S. border. Having dyed her hair red as a disguise, Miriam watches, waits, and then orchestrates the arrest of this man, exacting her own version of justice.
-
-
Terrible narration, wish I’d read the print book instead
- By BC2 on 10-21-23
By: Azam Ahmed
-
Poverty, by America
- By: Matthew Desmond
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 5 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The United States, the richest country on earth, has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. Why? Why does this land of plenty allow one in every eight of its children to go without basic necessities, permit scores of its citizens to live and die on the streets, and authorize its corporations to pay poverty wages?
-
-
A testimonial based on facts and witness
- By Alonzo Nightjar on 03-27-23
By: Matthew Desmond
-
King: A Life
- By: Jonathan Eig
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 20 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Vividly written and exhaustively researched, Jonathan Eig’s King: A Life is the first major biography in decades of the civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.—and the first to include recently declassified FBI files. In this revelatory new portrait of the preacher and activist who shook the world, the bestselling biographer gives us an intimate view of the courageous and often emotionally troubled human being who demanded peaceful protest for his movement but was rarely at peace with himself.
-
-
My Time
- By Susan on 06-18-23
By: Jonathan Eig
-
Black AF History
- The Un-Whitewashed Story of America
- By: Michael Harriot
- Narrated by: Michael Harriot
- Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
America’s backstory is a whitewashed mythology implanted in our collective memory. It should come as no surprise that the dominant narrative of American history is blighted with errors and oversights—after all, history books were written by white men with their perspectives at the forefront. It could even be said that the devaluation and erasure of the Black experience is as American as apple pie. In Black AF History, Michael Harriot presents a more accurate version of American history.
-
-
LOVE It!
- By KMB on 09-29-23
By: Michael Harriot
-
I Saw Death Coming
- A History of Terror and Survival in the War Against Reconstruction
- By: Kidada E. Williams
- Narrated by: Karen Chilton
- Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In I Saw Death Coming, Kidada E. Williams offers a breakthrough account of the much-debated Reconstruction period, transporting listeners into the daily existence of formerly enslaved people building hope-filled new lives.
-
-
Underrepresented piece of history
- By James O'Hanlon on 07-05-23
-
Life Sentence
- The Brief and Tragic Career of Baltimore’s Deadliest Gang Leader
- By: Mark Bowden
- Narrated by: L.J. Ganser
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this unprecedented deep dive into inner-city gang life, Mark Bowden takes listeners inside a Baltimore gang, offers an in-depth portrait of its notorious leader, and chronicles the 2016 FBI investigation that landed eight gang members in prison.
-
-
Good book, but needs to be re-cast.
- By Carey Chiaia on 06-08-23
By: Mark Bowden
-
Fear Is Just a Word
- A Missing Daughter, a Violent Cartel, and a Mother's Quest for Vengeance
- By: Azam Ahmed
- Narrated by: Sheldon Romero
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fear Is Just a Word begins on an international bridge between Mexico and the United States, as fifty-six-year-old Miriam Rodríguez stalks one of the men she believes was involved in the murder of her daughter Karen. He is her target number eleven, a member of the drug cartel that has terrorized and controlled what was once Miriam’s quiet hometown of San Fernando, Mexico, almost one hundred miles from the U.S. border. Having dyed her hair red as a disguise, Miriam watches, waits, and then orchestrates the arrest of this man, exacting her own version of justice.
-
-
Terrible narration, wish I’d read the print book instead
- By BC2 on 10-21-23
By: Azam Ahmed
-
Poverty, by America
- By: Matthew Desmond
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 5 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The United States, the richest country on earth, has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. Why? Why does this land of plenty allow one in every eight of its children to go without basic necessities, permit scores of its citizens to live and die on the streets, and authorize its corporations to pay poverty wages?
-
-
A testimonial based on facts and witness
- By Alonzo Nightjar on 03-27-23
By: Matthew Desmond
-
King: A Life
- By: Jonathan Eig
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 20 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Vividly written and exhaustively researched, Jonathan Eig’s King: A Life is the first major biography in decades of the civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.—and the first to include recently declassified FBI files. In this revelatory new portrait of the preacher and activist who shook the world, the bestselling biographer gives us an intimate view of the courageous and often emotionally troubled human being who demanded peaceful protest for his movement but was rarely at peace with himself.
-
-
My Time
- By Susan on 06-18-23
By: Jonathan Eig
-
Black AF History
- The Un-Whitewashed Story of America
- By: Michael Harriot
- Narrated by: Michael Harriot
- Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
America’s backstory is a whitewashed mythology implanted in our collective memory. It should come as no surprise that the dominant narrative of American history is blighted with errors and oversights—after all, history books were written by white men with their perspectives at the forefront. It could even be said that the devaluation and erasure of the Black experience is as American as apple pie. In Black AF History, Michael Harriot presents a more accurate version of American history.
-
-
LOVE It!
- By KMB on 09-29-23
By: Michael Harriot
-
The Fall
- The End of Fox News and the Murdoch Dynasty
- By: Michael Wolff
- Narrated by: Michael Wolff - introduction, Holter Graham
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For almost three decades, Fox News has not only made political careers (see: President Donald J. Trump) but also fundamentally altered the political landscape of the United States. It is a truism: as Fox goes, so goes the nation—into further divisiveness and awash in fake news, a gleefully polarizing company. But just as Fox has pushed America apart, now it too is coming apart. As is the family dynasty behind it.
-
-
Terrific rundown of Fox
- By Iread on 10-05-23
By: Michael Wolff
-
Doppelganger
- A Trip into the Mirror World
- By: Naomi Klein
- Narrated by: Naomi Klein
- Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What if you woke up one morning and found you’d acquired another self—a double who was almost you and yet not you at all? What if that double shared many of your preoccupations but, in a twisted, upside-down way, furthered the very causes you’d devoted your life to fighting against? Not long ago, the celebrated activist and public intellectual Naomi Klein had just such an experience—she was confronted with a doppelganger whose views she found abhorrent but whose name and public persona were sufficiently similar to her own that many people got confused about who was who.
-
-
Elite Psychobabble
- By A Reviewer on 09-30-23
By: Naomi Klein
-
American Whitelash
- A Changing Nation and the Cost of Progress
- By: Wesley Lowery
- Narrated by: Wesley Lowery
- Length: 7 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In American Whitelash, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and best-selling author Wesley Lowery charts the return of this blood-stained trend, showing how the forces of white power retaliated against Obama’s victory—and both profited from, and helped to propel, the rise of Donald Trump. Interweaving deep historical analysis with gripping firsthand reporting on both victims and perpetrators of violence, Lowery uncovers how this vicious cycle is carrying us into ever more perilous territory, how the federal government has failed to intervene, and how we still might find a route of escape.
-
-
I hate that our country is this way
- By Cullen on 07-22-23
By: Wesley Lowery
-
The Crack Era
- The Rise, Fall and Redemption of Kevin Chiles
- By: Kevin Chiles, Richard Ray Esq.
- Narrated by: Richard Ray Esq.
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Crack Era: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of Kevin Chiles chronicles one of the most treacherous periods in New York City’s history. As told by a man The New York Times once described as, “the biggest drug lord in Harlem since Nicky Barnes”, the book lays bare the harrowing exploits of the narcotics trade Uptown during the late ‘80s and early ‘90s - a world where the lust for freebase cocaine set off a veritable gold rush that turned ghetto boys into young millionaires almost overnight.
-
-
CUT...REDO
- By Boo Roq Nodrama on 10-26-20
By: Kevin Chiles, and others
-
The Heat Will Kill You First
- Life and Death on a Scorched Planet
- By: Jeff Goodell
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The world is waking up to a new reality: wildfires are now seasonal in California, the Northeast is getting less and less snow each winter, and the ice sheets in the Arctic and Antarctica are melting fast. Heat is the first order threat that drives all other impacts of the climate crisis. And as the temperature rises, it is revealing fault lines in our governments, our politics, our economy, and our values. The basic science is not complicated: Stop burning fossil fuels tomorrow, and the global temperature will stop rising tomorrow.
-
-
Eminently Skipable for Climate Science Believers
- By Chad on 07-15-23
By: Jeff Goodell
-
The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy
- And the Path to a Shared American Future
- By: Robert P. Jones
- Narrated by: Holter Graham
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beginning with contemporary efforts to reckon with the legacy of white supremacy in America, Jones returns to the fateful year when a little-known church doctrine emerged that shaped the way five centuries of European Christians would understand the “discovered” world and the people who populated it. From this vantage point, Jones illuminates how the enslavement of Africans was not America’s original sin but, rather, the continuation of acts of genocide and dispossession flowing from the first European contact with Native Americans.
-
-
The Doctrine of discovery matters to our history
- By Adam Shields on 09-13-23
By: Robert P. Jones
-
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
- As Told to Alex Haley
- By: Malcolm X, Alex Haley
- Narrated by: Laurence Fishburne
- Length: 16 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Experience a bold take on this classic autobiography as it’s performed by Oscar-nominated Laurence Fishburne. In this searing classic autobiography, originally published in 1965, Malcolm X, the Muslim leader, firebrand, and Black empowerment activist, tells the extraordinary story of his life and the growth of the Human Rights movement. His fascinating perspective on the lies and limitations of the American dream and the inherent racism in a society that denies its non-White citizens the opportunity to dream, gives extraordinary insight into the most urgent issues of our own time.
-
-
it's Nearly perfect
- By Kerry on 09-16-20
By: Malcolm X, and others
-
Black Folk
- The Roots of the Black Working Class
- By: Blair L.M. Kelley
- Narrated by: Anika Noni Rose
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There have been countless books, articles, and televised reports in recent years about the almost mythic "white working class," a tide of commentary that has obscured the labor, and even the very existence, of entire groups of working people, including everyday Black workers. In this brilliant corrective, Black Folk, acclaimed historian Blair LM Kelley restores the Black working class to the center of the American story.
-
-
Brilliant, Devastating, Inspiring
- By Philana Payton on 04-10-24
-
Blackout
- How Black America Can Make Its Second Escape from the Democrat Plantation
- By: Candace Owens, Larry Elder
- Narrated by: Candace Owens, Larry Elder
- Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Black Americans have long been shackled to the Democrats. Seeing no viable alternative, they have watched liberal politicians take the Black vote for granted without pledging anything in return. In Blackout, Owens argues that this automatic allegiance is both illogical and unearned. She contends that the Democrat Party has a long history of racism and exposes the ideals that hinder the Black community’s ability to rise above poverty, live independent and successful lives, and be an active part of the American dream.
-
-
Thought provoking!
- By Girl with curls on 09-16-20
By: Candace Owens, and others
-
Evicted
- Poverty and Profit in the American City
- By: Matthew Desmond
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Evicted, Princeton sociologist and MacArthur “Genius” Matthew Desmond follows eight families in Milwaukee as they each struggle to keep a roof over their heads. Hailed as “wrenching and revelatory” (The Nation), “vivid and unsettling” (New York Review of Books), Evicted transforms our understanding of poverty and economic exploitation while providing fresh ideas for solving one of twenty-first-century America’s most devastating problems. Its unforgettable scenes of hope and loss remind us of the centrality of home, without which nothing else is possible.
-
-
Former Property Manager
- By Charla on 05-18-16
By: Matthew Desmond
-
Concrete Rose
- By: Angie Thomas
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
If there's one thing seventeen-year-old Maverick Carter knows, it's that a real man takes care of his family. As the son of a former gang legend, Mav does that the only way he knows how: dealing for the King Lords. With this money he can help his mom, who works two jobs while his dad's in prison. Life's not perfect, but with a fly girlfriend and a cousin who always has his back, Mav's got everything under control. Until, that is, Maverick finds out he's a father. But it's not so easy to sling dope, finish school, and raise a child.
-
-
Five Starr!
- By Dayna on 01-18-21
By: Angie Thomas
-
Homegrown
- Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism
- By: Jeffrey Toobin
- Narrated by: Jeffrey Toobin
- Length: 14 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Timothy McVeigh wanted to start a movement. Speaking to his lawyers days after the Oklahoma City bombing, the Gulf War veteran expressed no regrets: killing 168 people was his patriotic duty. New York Times bestselling author Jeffrey Toobin traces the dramatic history and profound legacy of Timothy McVeigh, who once declared, “I believe there is an army out there, ready to rise up, even though I never found it.” But that doesn’t mean his army wasn’t there. With news-breaking reportage, Toobin details how McVeigh’s principles and tactics have flourished in the decades since his death in 2001.
-
-
Not a great book I’m sorry to say
- By H. Winslow on 05-10-23
By: Jeffrey Toobin
Critic reviews
"A compassionate and urgent story that centers the victims of this superdrug, When Crack Was King is an illuminating look at the devastating, racialized impacts of the U.S. criminal justice system—and a warning for us to do better as more drug epidemics rear their ugly heads.”—Time
“[A] panoramic social history . . . Ramsey aims to give the story of the crack epidemic a human face while telling it from start to finish, a herculean task. By and large he succeeds.”—The New York Times
“[Ramsey] makes a convincing case that government policies criminalized what was essentially a public health crisis, and he busts some of the most pernicious media-generated myths of the epidemic—including the much ballyhooed threat of the ‘crack baby.’”—NPR
Related to this topic
-
Stonewall
- The Definitive Story of the LGBT Rights Uprising that Changed America
- By: Martin Duberman
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam
- Length: 13 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On June 28, 1969, the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York's Greenwich Village, was raided by police. But instead of responding with the typical compliance the NYPD expected, patrons and a growing crowd decided to fight back. The five days of rioting that ensued changed forever the face of gay and lesbian life. In Stonewall, renowned historian and activist Martin Duberman tells the full story of this pivotal moment in history.
-
-
Not the Stonewall book I was looking for
- By T. Mommy on 10-05-24
By: Martin Duberman
-
Becoming Ms. Burton
- From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women
- By: Susan Burton, Cari Lynn
- Narrated by: Janina Edwards
- Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Susan Burton's world changed in an instant when her five-year-old son was killed by a van driving down their street. Consumed by grief and without access to professional help, Susan self-medicated, becoming addicted first to cocaine then to crack. As a resident of South Los Angeles, a Black community under siege in the War on Drugs, it was but a matter of time before Susan was arrested. She cycled in and out of prison for over 15 years; never was she offered therapy or treatment for addiction.
-
-
Compelling
- By Jean on 06-18-17
By: Susan Burton, and others
-
The Dead Are Arising
- The Life of Malcolm X
- By: Les Payne, Tamara Payne
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 18 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An epic biography of Malcolm X finally emerges, drawing on hundreds of hours of the author's interviews, rewriting much of the known narrative.
-
-
Much more depth than the Haley book.
- By CapitalHeel on 11-03-20
By: Les Payne, and others
-
Hatemonger
- Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, and the White Nationalist Agenda
- By: Jean Guerrero
- Narrated by: Frankie Corzo
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stephen Miller is one of the most influential advisors in the White House. He has crafted Donald Trump’s speeches, designed immigration policies that ban Muslims and separate families, and outlasted such Trump stalwarts as Steve Bannon and Jeff Sessions. But he’s remained an enigma. Until now. Emmy- and PEN-winning investigative journalist and author Jean Guerrero charts the 34-year-old’s astonishing rise to power, drawing from more than 100 interviews with his family, friends, adversaries, and government officials.
-
-
Deplorable on purpose
- By M. Alice Fisher on 08-15-20
By: Jean Guerrero
-
The Ones We've Been Waiting For
- How a New Generation of Leaders Will Transform America
- By: Charlotte Alter
- Narrated by: Charlotte Alter
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A new generation is stepping up. There are now 26 millennials in Congress - a fivefold increase gained in the 2018 midterms alone. In The Ones We've Been Waiting For, Time correspondent Charlotte Alter defines the class of young leaders who are remaking the nation - how grappling with 9/11 as teens, serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, occupying Wall Street and protesting with Black Lives Matter, and shouldering their way into a financially rigged political system has shaped the people who will govern the future.
-
-
Born before the lint roller invented
- By ML Sadler on 03-05-20
By: Charlotte Alter
-
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
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Eyeopening!
- By Ladybug on 09-07-16
By: Natalie Y. Moore
-
Stonewall
- The Definitive Story of the LGBT Rights Uprising that Changed America
- By: Martin Duberman
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam
- Length: 13 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On June 28, 1969, the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York's Greenwich Village, was raided by police. But instead of responding with the typical compliance the NYPD expected, patrons and a growing crowd decided to fight back. The five days of rioting that ensued changed forever the face of gay and lesbian life. In Stonewall, renowned historian and activist Martin Duberman tells the full story of this pivotal moment in history.
-
-
Not the Stonewall book I was looking for
- By T. Mommy on 10-05-24
By: Martin Duberman
-
Becoming Ms. Burton
- From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women
- By: Susan Burton, Cari Lynn
- Narrated by: Janina Edwards
- Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Susan Burton's world changed in an instant when her five-year-old son was killed by a van driving down their street. Consumed by grief and without access to professional help, Susan self-medicated, becoming addicted first to cocaine then to crack. As a resident of South Los Angeles, a Black community under siege in the War on Drugs, it was but a matter of time before Susan was arrested. She cycled in and out of prison for over 15 years; never was she offered therapy or treatment for addiction.
-
-
Compelling
- By Jean on 06-18-17
By: Susan Burton, and others
-
The Dead Are Arising
- The Life of Malcolm X
- By: Les Payne, Tamara Payne
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 18 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An epic biography of Malcolm X finally emerges, drawing on hundreds of hours of the author's interviews, rewriting much of the known narrative.
-
-
Much more depth than the Haley book.
- By CapitalHeel on 11-03-20
By: Les Payne, and others
-
Hatemonger
- Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, and the White Nationalist Agenda
- By: Jean Guerrero
- Narrated by: Frankie Corzo
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stephen Miller is one of the most influential advisors in the White House. He has crafted Donald Trump’s speeches, designed immigration policies that ban Muslims and separate families, and outlasted such Trump stalwarts as Steve Bannon and Jeff Sessions. But he’s remained an enigma. Until now. Emmy- and PEN-winning investigative journalist and author Jean Guerrero charts the 34-year-old’s astonishing rise to power, drawing from more than 100 interviews with his family, friends, adversaries, and government officials.
-
-
Deplorable on purpose
- By M. Alice Fisher on 08-15-20
By: Jean Guerrero
-
The Ones We've Been Waiting For
- How a New Generation of Leaders Will Transform America
- By: Charlotte Alter
- Narrated by: Charlotte Alter
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A new generation is stepping up. There are now 26 millennials in Congress - a fivefold increase gained in the 2018 midterms alone. In The Ones We've Been Waiting For, Time correspondent Charlotte Alter defines the class of young leaders who are remaking the nation - how grappling with 9/11 as teens, serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, occupying Wall Street and protesting with Black Lives Matter, and shouldering their way into a financially rigged political system has shaped the people who will govern the future.
-
-
Born before the lint roller invented
- By ML Sadler on 03-05-20
By: Charlotte Alter
-
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
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Eyeopening!
- By Ladybug on 09-07-16
By: Natalie Y. Moore
-
The Forgotten
- How the People of One Pennsylvania County Elected Donald Trump and Changed America
- By: Ben Bradlee
- Narrated by: Kiff Vandenheuvel
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Forgotten, Ben Bradlee, Jr., reports on how voters in Luzerne County, a pivotal county in a crucial swing state, came to feel like strangers in their own land - marginalized by flat or falling wages, rapid demographic change, and a liberal culture that mocks their faith and patriotism.
-
-
Wow
- By Walter on 11-05-18
By: Ben Bradlee
-
New York, New York, New York
- Four Decades of Success, Excess, and Transformation
- By: Thomas Dyja
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy, Thomas Dyja - introduction
- Length: 17 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dangerous, filthy, and falling apart, garbage piled on its streets and entire neighborhoods reduced to rubble; New York’s terrifying, if liberating, state of nature in 1978 also made it the capital of American culture. Over the next thirty-plus years, though, it became a different place - kinder and meaner, richer and poorer, more like America and less like what it had always been.
-
-
OMG...right on 👍👍👍👍👍
- By howie wine on 04-04-21
By: Thomas Dyja
-
Don't Shoot
- One Man, a Street Fellowship, and the End of Violence in Inner-City America
- By: David M. Kennedy
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Gang- and drug-related inner-city violence, with its attendant epidemic of incarceration, is the defining crime problem in our country. In some neighborhoods in America, one out of every 200 young black men is shot to death every year, and few initiatives of government and law enforcement have made much difference. But when David Kennedy, a self-taught and then-unknown criminologist, engineered the "Boston Miracle" in the mid-1990s, he pointed the way toward what few had imagined: a solution.
-
-
Tragically Under-Appreciated
- By Nathan Witkin on 12-02-22
By: David M. Kennedy
-
The Violence Inside Us
- A Brief History of an Ongoing American Tragedy
- By: Chris Murphy
- Narrated by: Chris Murphy
- Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Is America destined to always be a violent nation? This sweeping history by U.S. senator Chris Murphy explores the origins of our violent impulses, the roots of our obsession with firearms, and the mythologies that prevent us from confronting our national crisis. In many ways, the United States sets the pace for other nations to follow. Yet on the most important human concern - the need to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe from physical harm - America isn’t a leader.
-
-
America needs more white men like Chris Murphy.
- By jnlv68 on 09-20-20
By: Chris Murphy
-
Please Scream Inside Your Heart
- Breaking News and Nervous Breakdowns in the Year That Wouldn't End
- By: Dave Pell
- Narrated by: John Parsons, Peter Coyote, L. J. Ganser, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Please Scream Inside Your Heart is a time capsule; a real-time ride through the maddening hell that was the 2020 news cycle - when historic turmoil and media mania stretched American sanity, democracy, and toilet paper. Who better to examine this unhinged period in all of its twists and turns than news addict Dave Pell, a.k.a. the internet’s managing editor?
-
-
Couldn’t stop listening!!
- By Rofar4 on 11-16-21
By: Dave Pell
-
Witness to the Revolution
- Radicals, Resisters, Vets, Hippies, and the Year America Lost Its Mind and Found Its Soul
- By: Clara Bingham
- Narrated by: Jo Anna Perrin
- Length: 18 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As the 1960s drew to a close, the United States was coming apart at the seams. From August 1969 to August 1970, the nation witnessed 9,000 protests and 84 acts of arson or bombings at schools across the country. It was the year of the My Lai massacre investigation, the Cambodia invasion, Woodstock, and the Moratorium to End the War. The American death toll in Vietnam was approaching 50,000, and the ascendant counterculture was challenging nearly every aspect of American society.
-
-
great perspective on an era
- By james on 04-02-18
By: Clara Bingham
-
My Vanishing Country
- A Memoir
- By: Bakari Sellers
- Narrated by: Bakari Sellers
- Length: 5 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What J. D. Vance did for Appalachia with Hillbilly Elegy, CNN analyst and one of the youngest state representatives in South Carolina history Bakari Sellers does for the rural South, in this important book that illuminates the lives of America’s forgotten Black working-class men and women. Part memoir, part historical and cultural analysis, My Vanishing Country is an eye-opening journey through the South's past, present, and future.
-
-
What America Needs NOW!!!
- By Unknown on 05-22-20
By: Bakari Sellers
-
The Book of Pride
- LGBTQ Heroes Who Changed the World
- By: Mason Funk
- Narrated by: Mason Funk, Robin Miles, Eileen Stevens, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Book of Pride captures the true story of the gay rights movement from the 1960s to the present, through richly detailed, stunning interviews with the leaders, activists, and ordinary people who witnessed the movement and made it happen. These individuals fought battles both personal and political, often without the support of family or friends, frequently under the threat of violence and persecution.
-
-
Pure Joy for EVERYONE
- By Micah D on 06-03-19
By: Mason Funk
-
Set the Night on Fire
- L.A. in the Sixties
- By: Mike Davis, Jon Wiener
- Narrated by: Ron Butler
- Length: 25 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Los Angeles in the '60s was a hotbed of political and social upheaval. The city was a launchpad for Black Power - where Malcolm X and Angela Davis first came to prominence and the Watts uprising shook the nation. The city was home to the Chicano Blowouts and Chicano Moratorium, as well as being the birthplace of “Asian American” as a political identity. It was a locus of the antiwar movement, gay liberation movement, and women’s movement, and, of course, the capital of California counterculture.
-
-
An amazingly comprehensive story of a critical decade.
- By Manifesta on 11-29-20
By: Mike Davis, and others
-
High-Risers
- Cabrini-Green and the Fate of American Public Housing
- By: Ben Austen
- Narrated by: Ron Butler
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Built in the 1940s atop an infamous Italian slum, Cabrini-Green grew to 23 towers and a population of 20,000 - all of it packed onto just 70 acres a few blocks from Chicago's ritzy Gold Coast. Cabrini-Green became synonymous with crime, squalor, and the failure of government. For the many who lived there, it was also a much-needed resource - it was home. By 2011, every high-rise had been razed, the island of black poverty engulfed by the white affluence around it, the families dispersed.
-
-
Little mention of accountability of the people getting the housing
- By Steve D Renz on 05-15-18
By: Ben Austen
-
Boom!
- Voices of the Sixties: Personal Reflections on the '60s and Today
- By: Tom Brokaw
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 18 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Boom! One minute it was Ike and the man in the grey flannel suit, and the next minute it was time to "turn on, tune in, drop out". While Americans were walking on the moon, Americans were dying in Vietnam. Nothing was beyond question, and there were far fewer answers than before.
-
-
boring survey of a generation
- By Andy on 01-01-08
By: Tom Brokaw
-
Stupid Black Men
- How to Play the Race Card - and Lose
- By: Larry Elder
- Narrated by: Larry Elder
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Stupid Black Men, Larry Elder takes on the mind-set of those people who always capture the most media attention - as well as masses of public money - people who say that racism is the root of all problems and who end up hurting precisely those they claim to be helping.
-
-
New fan
- By Levonne Burris on 07-15-19
By: Larry Elder
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The End of Policing
- By: Alex S. Vitale
- Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This audiobook attempts to spark public discussion by revealing the tainted origins of modern policing as a tool of social control. It shows how the expansion of police authority is inconsistent with community empowerment, social justice - even public safety. Drawing on groundbreaking research from across the world, and covering virtually every area in the increasingly broad range of police work, Alex Vitale demonstrates how law enforcement has come to exacerbate the very problems it is supposed to solve.
-
-
Preaching to the choir
- By Daniel A. Boyd on 08-09-19
By: Alex S. Vitale
-
Cloudmoney
- Cash, Cards, Crypto, and the War for Our Wallets
- By: Brett Scott
- Narrated by: Coleman Pedigo
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Cloudmoney, Brett Scott tells an urgent and revelatory story about how the fusion of Big Finance and Big Tech requires “cloudmoney”—digital money underpinned by the banking sector—to replace physical cash. He dives beneath the surface of the global financial system to uncover a long-established lobbying infrastructure: an alliance of partners waging a covert war on cash.
-
-
Suspicions and grievances instead of arguments
- By Holger on 03-09-23
By: Brett Scott
-
The Accommodation
- The Politics of Race in an American City
- By: Jim Schutze, John Wiley Price
- Narrated by: Mike Rhyner, John Wiley Price
- Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The powerful, long-repressed classic of Dallas history that examines the violent and suppressed history of race and racism in the city. Written by longtime Dallas political journalist Jim Schutze, formerly of the Dallas Times Herald and Dallas Observer and currently columnist at D Magazine, The Accommodation follows the story of Dallas from slavery through the civil rights movement and the city’s desegregation efforts in the 1950s and ‘60s.
-
-
Floored
- By Anthony on 09-16-22
By: Jim Schutze, and others
-
Biased
- Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do
- By: Jennifer L. Eberhardt PhD
- Narrated by: Jennifer L. Eberhardt PhD
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How do we talk about bias? How do we address racial disparities and inequities? What role do our institutions play in creating, maintaining, and magnifying those inequities? What role do we play? With a perspective that is at once scientific, investigative, and informed by personal experience, Dr. Jennifer Eberhardt offers us the language and courage we need to face one of the biggest and most troubling issues of our time. She exposes racial bias at all levels of society - in our neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, and criminal justice system.
-
-
hoped for more on why bias and how to avoid it
- By Pavan Ongole on 04-04-19
-
Burning Down the House
- The End of Juvenile Prison
- By: Nell Bernstein
- Narrated by: Joana Garcia
- Length: 15 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One in three American children will be arrested by the time they are 23, and many will spend time locked inside horrific detention centers that defy everything we know about what motivates young people to change. Nell Bernstein argues that there is no right way to lock up a child. A landmark book, Burning Down the House sparked a national conversation about our inhumane and ineffectual juvenile prisons, and ultimately makes the radical argument that the only path to justice is for state-run detention centers to be abolished completely.
-
-
Agree to Disagree
- By Wayne on 06-25-22
By: Nell Bernstein
-
Sold Out
- How Broken Supply Chains, Surging Inflation, and Political Instability Will Sink the Global Economy
- By: James Rickards
- Narrated by: James Rickards
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Today, your favorite products are missing from store shelves, caught in supply chain limbo somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. But what does this supply chain disruption look like six months, or even three years, from now? While we hope that post-pandemic recovery will absolve these issues, the reality is that digital currency, meme stonks, and social media can’t solve the age-old problem of producing and moving physical goods across oceans and continents. Jim Rickards argues that consumer frustration is only the tip of a large, menacing iceberg that threatens global economic collapse.
-
-
Hard to like this. Book is really Dull.
- By horoscopy on 12-06-22
By: James Rickards
-
The End of Policing
- By: Alex S. Vitale
- Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This audiobook attempts to spark public discussion by revealing the tainted origins of modern policing as a tool of social control. It shows how the expansion of police authority is inconsistent with community empowerment, social justice - even public safety. Drawing on groundbreaking research from across the world, and covering virtually every area in the increasingly broad range of police work, Alex Vitale demonstrates how law enforcement has come to exacerbate the very problems it is supposed to solve.
-
-
Preaching to the choir
- By Daniel A. Boyd on 08-09-19
By: Alex S. Vitale
-
Cloudmoney
- Cash, Cards, Crypto, and the War for Our Wallets
- By: Brett Scott
- Narrated by: Coleman Pedigo
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Cloudmoney, Brett Scott tells an urgent and revelatory story about how the fusion of Big Finance and Big Tech requires “cloudmoney”—digital money underpinned by the banking sector—to replace physical cash. He dives beneath the surface of the global financial system to uncover a long-established lobbying infrastructure: an alliance of partners waging a covert war on cash.
-
-
Suspicions and grievances instead of arguments
- By Holger on 03-09-23
By: Brett Scott
-
The Accommodation
- The Politics of Race in an American City
- By: Jim Schutze, John Wiley Price
- Narrated by: Mike Rhyner, John Wiley Price
- Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The powerful, long-repressed classic of Dallas history that examines the violent and suppressed history of race and racism in the city. Written by longtime Dallas political journalist Jim Schutze, formerly of the Dallas Times Herald and Dallas Observer and currently columnist at D Magazine, The Accommodation follows the story of Dallas from slavery through the civil rights movement and the city’s desegregation efforts in the 1950s and ‘60s.
-
-
Floored
- By Anthony on 09-16-22
By: Jim Schutze, and others
-
Biased
- Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do
- By: Jennifer L. Eberhardt PhD
- Narrated by: Jennifer L. Eberhardt PhD
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How do we talk about bias? How do we address racial disparities and inequities? What role do our institutions play in creating, maintaining, and magnifying those inequities? What role do we play? With a perspective that is at once scientific, investigative, and informed by personal experience, Dr. Jennifer Eberhardt offers us the language and courage we need to face one of the biggest and most troubling issues of our time. She exposes racial bias at all levels of society - in our neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, and criminal justice system.
-
-
hoped for more on why bias and how to avoid it
- By Pavan Ongole on 04-04-19
-
Burning Down the House
- The End of Juvenile Prison
- By: Nell Bernstein
- Narrated by: Joana Garcia
- Length: 15 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One in three American children will be arrested by the time they are 23, and many will spend time locked inside horrific detention centers that defy everything we know about what motivates young people to change. Nell Bernstein argues that there is no right way to lock up a child. A landmark book, Burning Down the House sparked a national conversation about our inhumane and ineffectual juvenile prisons, and ultimately makes the radical argument that the only path to justice is for state-run detention centers to be abolished completely.
-
-
Agree to Disagree
- By Wayne on 06-25-22
By: Nell Bernstein
-
Sold Out
- How Broken Supply Chains, Surging Inflation, and Political Instability Will Sink the Global Economy
- By: James Rickards
- Narrated by: James Rickards
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Today, your favorite products are missing from store shelves, caught in supply chain limbo somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. But what does this supply chain disruption look like six months, or even three years, from now? While we hope that post-pandemic recovery will absolve these issues, the reality is that digital currency, meme stonks, and social media can’t solve the age-old problem of producing and moving physical goods across oceans and continents. Jim Rickards argues that consumer frustration is only the tip of a large, menacing iceberg that threatens global economic collapse.
-
-
Hard to like this. Book is really Dull.
- By horoscopy on 12-06-22
By: James Rickards
-
Conversations
- By: Steve Reich
- Narrated by: Stephen Graybill, Johnny Heller, Derek Perkins, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Steve Reich is a living legend in the world of contemporary classical music. As a leader of the minimalist movement in the 1960s, his works have become central to the musical landscape worldwide, influencing generations of younger musicians, choreographers and visual artists. He has explored non-Western music and American vernacular music from jazz to rock, as well as groundbreaking music and video pieces. He toured the world with his own ensemble and his compositions are performed internationally by major orchestras and ensembles.
-
-
Stunningly thoughtful!
- By Jon Wagner on 08-22-24
By: Steve Reich
-
Hooked
- Food, Free Will, and How the Food Giants Exploit Our Addictions
- By: Michael Moss
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 9 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everyone knows how hard it can be to maintain a healthy diet. But what if some of the decisions we make about what to eat are beyond our control? Is it possible that food is addictive, like drugs or alcohol? And to what extent does the food industry know, or care, about these vulnerabilities? In Hooked, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Michael Moss sets out to answer these questions - and to find the true peril in our food.
-
-
Empowering Read
- By Lorena Kazmierski on 04-04-21
By: Michael Moss
-
You're the Only One I've Told
- The Stories Behind Abortion
- By: Dr. Meera Shah
- Narrated by: Janina Edwards, Lisa Reneé Pitts
- Length: 11 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For a long time, when people asked Dr. Meera Shah what she did, she would tell them she was a doctor and leave it at that. "I'm an abortion provider," she will now say. And an interesting thing started to happen each time she met someone new. One by one, people would confide that in fact they'd had an abortion themselves. And the refrain was often the same: You're the only one I've told. This book collects those stories as they've been told to Shah to humanize abortion and to combat myths that persist in the discourse that surrounds it.
-
-
Open your mind
- By Evan on 02-03-22
By: Dr. Meera Shah
-
The Filthy Thirteen
- From the Dustbowl to Hitler's Eagle’s Nest - The True Story of the101st Airborne's Most Legendary Squad of Combat Paratroopers
- By: Jake McNiece
- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since World War II, the American public has become fully aware of the exploits of the 101st Airborne Division, the paratroopers who led the Allied invasions into Nazi-held Europe. But within the ranks of the 101st, a sub-unit attained legendary status at the time, its reputation persisting among veterans over the decades. Primarily products of the Dustbowl and the Depression, the Filthy13 grew notorious, even within the ranks of the elite 101st. Never ones to salute an officer, or take a bath, this squad became singular within the Screaming Eagles.
-
-
Best WW2 book ever
- By lickbag on 01-12-15
By: Jake McNiece
-
Hollywood Ending
- Harvey Weinstein and the Culture of Silence
- By: Ken Auletta
- Narrated by: Jonathan Coleman
- Length: 19 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twenty years ago, Ken Auletta wrote an iconic New Yorker profile of the Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, who was then at the height of his powers. The profile made waves for exposing how volatile, even violent, Weinstein was to his employees and collaborators. But there was a much darker story that was just out of reach: rumors had long swirled that Weinstein was a sexual predator. Auletta confronted Weinstein, who denied the claims. Since no one was willing to go on the record, Auletta and the magazine concluded they couldn’t close the case.
-
-
Compelling but too long, with some strange errors
- By bugsmeany on 11-16-22
By: Ken Auletta
-
This America of Ours
- Bernard and Avis DeVoto and the Forgotten Fight to Save the Wild
- By: Nate Schweber
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In late-1940s America, few writers commanded attention like Bernard DeVoto. Alongside his brilliant wife and editor, Avis, DeVoto was a firebrand of American liberty, free speech, and perhaps our greatest national treasure: public lands. But when a corrupt band of lawmakers, led by Senator Pat McCarran, sought to quietly cede millions of acres of national parks and other western lands to logging, mining, and private industry, the DeVotos entered the fight of their lives.
-
-
Fascinating history of a great conservationist
- By Sue on 10-18-22
By: Nate Schweber
-
Power Failure
- The Rise and Fall of an American Icon
- By: William D. Cohan
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 28 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No company embodied American ingenuity, innovation, and industrial power more spectacularly and more consistently than the General Electric Company. GE once developed and manufactured many of the inventions we take for granted today, nearly everything from the lightbulb to the jet engine. GE also built a cult of financial and leadership success envied across the globe and became the world’s most valuable and most admired company. But even at the height of its prestige and influence, cracks were forming in its formidable foundation.
-
-
Much better than other GE books
- By Brannon Crawford on 12-26-22
By: William D. Cohan
-
American Cheese
- By: Joe Berkowitz
- Narrated by: Charlie Thurston
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Joe Berkowitz loves cheese. Or at least he thought he did. After stumbling upon an artisanal tasting at an upscale cheese shop one Valentine’s Day, he realized he’d hardly even scratched the surface. These cheeses were like nothing he had ever tasted - a visceral drug-punch that reverberated deliciousness - and they were from America. He felt like he was being let in a great cosmic secret, and instantly he was in love.
-
-
Interesting and a Little Disappointing
- By Joe F. on 03-26-23
By: Joe Berkowitz
-
The Angel and the Assassin
- The Tiny Brain Cell That Changed the Course of Medicine
- By: Donna Jackson Nakazawa
- Narrated by: Melinda Wade
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Until recently, microglia were thought to be merely the brain’s housekeepers, helpfully removing damaged cells. But a recent groundbreaking discovery revealed them to be capable of terrifying Jekyll and Hyde behavior. When triggered - and anything that stirs up the immune system in the body can activate microglia - they can morph into destroyers, impacting a wide range of issues from memory problems and anxiety to depression and Alzheimer’s. Under the right circumstances, however, microglia can be coaxed back into being angelic healers.
-
-
A Magnus Opus for Microglia
- By Dominic Acri on 01-23-20
-
Conquistadores
- A New History of Spanish Discovery and Conquest
- By: Fernando Cervantes
- Narrated by: Luis Soto
- Length: 15 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over the few short decades that followed Christopher Columbus' first landing in the Caribbean in 1492, Spain conquered the two most powerful civilizations of the Americas: the Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peru. Hernán Cortés, Francisco Pizarro, and the other explorers and soldiers who took part in these expeditions dedicated their lives to seeking political and religious glory, helping to build an empire unlike any the world had ever seen. But centuries later, these conquistadors have become the stuff of nightmares.
-
-
A fresh mature perspective on the Spanish conquest
- By Chencheno111 on 03-19-22
-
Summer Snow
- New Poems
- By: Robert Hass
- Narrated by: Robert Hass
- Length: 3 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A new volume of poetry from Robert Hass is always an event. In Summer Snow, Hass further affirms his position as one of our most highly regarded living poets. Hass’s trademark careful attention to the natural world, his subtle humor, and the delicate but wide-ranging eye he casts on the human experience are fully on display in his masterful collection. Touching on subjects including the poignancy of loss, the serene and resonant beauty of nature, and the mutability of desire, Hass exhibits his virtuosic abilities and expansive intellect, and tremendous listenability.
-
-
Beautiful aching poems
- By Nate on 04-18-24
By: Robert Hass
-
Smoke and Ashes
- Opium's Hidden Histories
- By: Amitav Ghosh
- Narrated by: Ranjit Madgavkar
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Amitav Ghosh began the research for his monumental cycle of novels the Ibis trilogy ten years ago, he was startled to learn how the lives of the nineteenth-century sailors and soldiers he wrote about were dictated not only by the currents of the Indian Ocean but also by the precious commodity carried in enormous quantities on those currents: opium. Most surprising of all, however, was the discovery that his own identity and family history were swept up in the story. Smoke and Ashes is at once a travelogue, a memoir, and an essay in history, drawing on decades of archival research.
-
-
I adored the narrator
- By J. Dusheck on 06-20-24
By: Amitav Ghosh
What listeners say about When Crack Was King
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Carolyn
- 03-23-24
It's a harrowing account of an epidemic
I loved that the book focused on real people caught up in many aspects of this epidemic and how some still managed to survive.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- all our stories
- 11-08-23
An excellent must read book for people who care about current political times.
Thank you for this excellent work.
This book makes evident that the real criminals are not locked behind bars but left free to stand on the corpses of victims of self medicating (drug use). These are the criminals voted into political office by duped American voters. Historically they knowingly allowed drugs into the US. Back then it was drugs now it’s guns
The gangster rappers and black movie makers had more impact in decreasing the crack epidemic than Nancy Raven’s “Just say no” slogan. As well meaning as she might have been she just didn’t “know” enough to make a difference. The real difference was made by individuals and communities whose lives were directly affected by political manipulation and the targeted war on people rather than drugs.
An excellent must read book for people who care about these current political times. Remember history is repeating itself.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- S. Davis
- 08-09-23
Drugs and community
Thank you for writing this book. This helps to explain how crack and government destroyed our neighborhoods.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 09-01-23
Good but flawed
Really informative read full of important and all too often overlooked information. The cultural conversation on the crack epidemic being reframed as a moral panic was enlightening and the analysis of that panics effect on the political environment was top notch. That said the personal approach to some of the storytelling meant that we were often moved around in time and subjected to a lot of detail that to me seemed to distract.
The performance wasn’t great and was full of poorly mastered punch ins and volume swells that were SUPER distracting.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- HighPeak
- 01-07-24
Intriguing account of the 80’s and 90’s crack era through different lenses
The author describes the era via several different characters and manages to enlighten the reader with scenes and realities that we were not subjected to. This allows you to develop empathy and understanding to many aspects that are hard to describe in a non fiction book Also great survey of different writings, approaches and political opinions with regards to drugs through that period.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 07-18-23
Essential chronicling of man-made epidemic
This book puts an era in African American history, often never fully understood or deliberately misrepresented, into individual context. Providing a broad understanding of what led up to it, what transpired during, and the beginnings of emergence from it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Roberta S. White
- 04-01-24
Done by Design
If ever you've referred to someone addicted to Crack as a Crackhead, this review is for you. If ever you voiced or felt Crack was the Negroes problem, this review is for you. If your response to the Opioid crisis is, "We must intervene NOW," and you're old enough to have spoken our during the Crack Era, but didn't, this review is for you!
This story is laced with statistics, facts, details, and real-life examples of those who contributed to one of the most destructive eras in Black American History next to slavery, Jim Crow, and integration Such as failure to address the root issues of infusing a people into a culture deemed to exclude them. I have no idea what led me to this book other than the Holy Spirit, and I'm ever so grateful! This text gives context to the communities I serve as a Hospice Chaplain and Minister of the Gospel. As someone who's family has been shook by issues with drug abuse to include Crack, this book has given insight into the demon that robbed a lot of my people to include my extended family known as the community.
THIS IS A MUST READ!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Cool Cat
- 10-01-23
Very good history and analysis
The following of the 4 characters.
The history and truth about the crack epidemic.
A new way of seeing the reality and the truth and fiction.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- jamal lewis
- 01-03-24
Wow...
Listen to this book! Really Listen. This book is amazing and should be on every listen list on the planet. You wanna know this is it
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- mustang
- 07-16-23
Amazing!!
While listening to this book I reflected on my past child hood and what my community looked like at the time. This book made me smile and cry while thinking of the past
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful