Showing results by narrator "Patrick Cullen" in All Categories

From the moment he took office as governor in 1928 to the day an assassin’s bullet cut him down in 1935, Huey Long wielded all but dictatorial control over the state of Louisiana. A man of shameless ambition and ruthless vindictiveness, Long orchestrated elections, hired and fired thousands at will, and deployed the state militia as his personal police force. And yet, paradoxically, as governor and later as senator, Long did more good for the state’s poor and uneducated than any politician before or since. Outrageous demagogue or charismatic visionary?

Smallpox, the only infectious disease to have been eradicated, was one of the most terrifying of human scourges. It covered the skin with hideous, painful boils, killed a third of its victims, and left the survivors disfigured for life. In this riveting, often terrifying look at the history of smallpox, Jonathan B. Tucker tells the story of this deadly disease, the heroic efforts to eradicate it worldwide, and the looming dangers it still poses today.

Transforming Leadership focuses on the ways that leaders emerge from being ordinary "transactional" deal-makers to become dynamic agents of major social change who empower their followers.

Here is a bold new history of economics, the dramatic story of how the great economic thinkers built a rigorous social science without peer.

It’s 1877, and all over the West, frontier towns have sprung up, drawing those in search of new beginnings after the Civil War. The young community of Payday is a paradise of rolling meadows and balmy skies, with a quiet population of ranchers and merchants. Into this Eden comes young editor Sam Flint, whose fledgling newspaper, the Payday Pioneer, earns him friends within the town and trumpets Payday’s glories throughout the West.

This memorable collection of anecdotes about America's national pastime will take you into the dugout, clubhouse, and press box with some of the game's greatest players and storytellers.

All of the geniuses in Six Great Scientists - Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Darwin, Curie, and Einstein - had one thing in common: the determination to do scientific research whatever the obstacles. They all had the imagination to conceive great ideas and the force of will not to be defeated. Their stories renew our confidence in the human spirit. They remind us of the advancements that can result when men and women have the ability and courage to achieve great things.

Whether you fly a kite in a soft summer breeze or shovel snow after a January blizzard, the dynamics of wind and weather remain the same. Eric Pinder, certified observer at Mount Washington Meteorological Observatory, takes listeners on a voyage of discovery through the atmosphere, a swirling ocean of air that surrounds and sustains life. The journey begins in a sunny New England woodlot and ends atop the polar ice of Antarctica - where we learn, remarkably, that the two extremes are not so different after all.

Written as a series of letters, Poor People tells the tragic tale of a petty clerk and his impossible love for a young girl. Longing to help her and her family, he sells everything he can, but his kindness leads him only into more desperate poverty, and ultimately into debauchery. As a typical "man of the underground", he serves as the embodiment of the belief that happiness can only be achieved with riches.

In 1895, two young men destined to make their mark on American life, Theodore Roosevelt and Henry Cabot Lodge, discovered they shared a common interest in the remarkable way ordinary Americans demonstrated the real character of the young nation. They were convinced that the brilliance of American liberty could best be found in the lives of everyday people, rather than in accounts of the famous and powerful.

Getting It Right is set in the upheaval of the 1960's. The Cuban missile crisis has brought the Communist threat to within miles of the United States, and extremist movements roil the American Right.

Set against the backdrop of the first world's fair in London, America's Victory takes listeners into a world rich in adventure and history in an unforgettable story of skill, daring, and honor at the heart of our national identity

Long before the success of his bossa nova Grammy winner “The Girl from Ipanema”, Stan Getz was a fixture in the pantheon of jazz greats. From his recording of “Early Autumn” with the Woody Herman band in 1949, which catapulted him to stardom at age 22, to the 1961 jazz/classical masterpiece “Focus”, to the 1990 release of “Apasionado”, Getz’s 49-year career is a tale of enduring artistic success in the midst of a troubled life.

Continuously in demand since its first, prize-winning edition was published in 1975, this is the classic history of Hiroshima and the origins of the arms race, from the development of the American atomic bomb to the decision to use it against Japan and the beginnings of U.S. atomic diplomacy toward the Soviet Union.

James Murphy, one of America's top fighter pilots, has the answers. By combining the cool calculation of a four-star general and the hot-blooded nerve of a combat pilot, Murphy's "modern business warrior" is uniquely qualified to prioritize, maintain focus, assess risk, and develop the kind of teamwork necessary for long-term success.

Explorer, war hero, filmmaker, and cinema pioneer Merian C. Cooper, the adventurer who created King Kong, was truly larger than life. Spellbound since boyhood by tales of life-threatening adventure and exotic locales, Cooper plunged into harrowing expeditions into places not yet civilized by modern man.

Here is the world's most famous master plan for seizing and holding power. Astonishing in its candor, The Prince is a disturbingly realistic and prophetic work on what it takes to be a prince, a king, a president.

In just a few years early in the 20th century, the federal government grew from one tiny cog in the machinery of American life into a colossus, controlling the behavior of every individual. Paranoia, suspicion, and hatred of foreigners took hold, forming the mind-set with which the nation made its first acquaintance with communism in 1918. It was a seminal period in the history of the United States and the world, but the American side of the story has remained largely untold.

Recklessly, joyously, Black Jack had ridden into town to see his infant son. Then a shotgun fired from a window had blasted him from his horse and flung him to his death in the street.

Thirty years ago, the best-selling "letter to the government", Work in America, was published to national acclaim, including front-page coverage in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post. It sounded an alarm about worker dissatisfaction and the effects on the nation as a whole.