A Mencken Chrestomathy
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A Mencken Chrestomathy
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Narrated by:
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Grover Gardner
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By:
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H. L. Mencken
About this listen
Edited and annotated by H. L. M., this is a selection from his out-of-print writings. They come mostly from books - the six installments of the Prejudices series, A Book of Burlesques, In Defense of Women, Notes on Democracy, Making a President, A Book of Calumny, Treatise on Right and Wrong - but there are also magazine and newspaper pieces that never got between covers (from the American Mercury, the Smart Set, and the Baltimore Evening Sun) and some notes that were never previously published at all.
Listeners will find edification and amusement in his estimates of a variety of Americans - Woodrow Wilson, Aimee Semple McPherson, Roosevelt I and Roosevelt II, James Gibbons Huneker, Rudolph Valentino, Calvin Coolidge, Ring Lardner, Theodore Dreiser, and Walt Whitman.
Those musically inclined will enjoy his pieces on Beethoven, Schubert, and Wagner, and there is material for a hundred controversies in his selections on Joseph Conrad, Thorstein Veblen, Nietzsche, and Madame Blavatsky.
©1916, 1918, 1919, 1920, 1921, 1922, 1924, 1926, 1927, 1932, 1934, 1942, 1949 Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. (P)2020 Blackstone PublishingListeners also enjoyed...
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Fantastic and insightful book
- By ESK on 01-25-13
By: Will Durant
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The Education of Henry Adams
- By: Henry Adams
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 19 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 131
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 89
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Story4 out of 5 stars 92
As a journalist, historian, and novelist born into a family that included two past presidents of the United States, Henry Adams was constantly focused on the American experiment. An immediate bestseller awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1919, The Education of Henry Adams recounts his own and the country's education from 1838, the year of his birth, to 1905, incorporating the Civil War, capitalist expansion, and the growth of the United States as a world power.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Book EVERYONE should read once.
- By Darwin8u on 04-17-12
By: Henry Adams
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Notes from the Underground (AmazonClassics Edition)
- By: Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Constance Garnett - translator
- Narrated by: Pete Simonelli
- Length: 4 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 293
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 247
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 245
Isolated from society in a tenement basement in St. Petersburg, a malicious former civil servant vents his resentments. In the rambling notes that follow, we are exposed to the inner turmoil of the Underground Man, who represents the voice of his generation. An emotional, paranoid knot of contradictions, the spiteful narrator is also desperate to join a society he loathes, if only to prove his superiority to it.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Amazing
- By Bryan on 02-19-19
By: Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and others
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Angels and Ages
- A Short Book About Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life
- By: Adam Gopnik
- Narrated by: Adam Gopnik
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 76
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 48
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Story4 out of 5 stars 46
Written 200 years after Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln shared a birthday on February 12, 1809, this insightful account sheds new light on two men who changed the way we think about the meaning of life and death. Award-winning journalist Adam Gopnik's unique perspective, combined with previously unexplored stories and figures, reveals two men planted firmly at the roots of modern views and liberal values.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Connecting Darwin and Lincoln
- By Joshua Kim on 06-10-12
By: Adam Gopnik
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Self Reliance
- By: Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Narrated by: Alana Munro
- Length: 1 hr and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,029
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 869
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Story4 out of 5 stars 859
The most thorough statement of one of Emerson's recurrent themes, the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency, and follow his or her own instincts and ideas. It is the source of one of Emerson's most famous quotations, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." This essay is a considered a watershed moment in which transcendentalism became a major cultural movement. An American classic.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Don't buy this
- By Leah L on 07-31-16
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Oliver Wendell Holmes
- A Life in War, Law, and Ideas
- By: Stephen Budiansky
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 16 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 428
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 360
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 357
Holmes twice escaped death as a young Union officer in the Civil War when musket balls barely missed his heart and spinal cord. He lived ever after with unwavering moral courage, scorn for dogma, and an insatiable intellectual curiosity. Named to the Supreme Court by Theodore Roosevelt at age 61, he served for nearly three decades, writing a series of famous, eloquent, and often dissenting opinions that would prove prophetic in securing freedom of speech, protecting the rights of criminal defendants, and ending the Court's reactionary resistance to social and economic reforms.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Top-Notch Biography
- By Jean on 08-01-19
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Self-Reliance and Other Essays (AmazonClassics Edition)
- By: Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Narrated by: Mikael Naramore
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 108
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 82
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 81
In this definitive collection of essays, including the poignant title essay "Self-Reliance," Ralph Waldo Emerson expounds on the importance of trusting your soul, as well as divine providence, to carve out a life. A firm believer in nonconformity, Emerson celebrates the individual and stresses the value of listening to the inner voice unique to each of us—even when it defies society's expectations.
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5 out of 5 stars
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This book is like a series of great quotes!
- By M. Allen on 01-16-19
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Cultural Amnesia
- Notes in the Margin of My Time
- By: Clive James
- Narrated by: Clive James
- Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 149
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 104
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 103
From Anna Akhmatova to Stefan Zweig, via Charles de Gaulle, Hitler, Thomas Mann and Charlie Chaplin, this varied and unfailingly absorbing book is both story and history, both public memoir and personal record - and provides an essential field-guide to the vast movements of taste, intellect, politics and delusion that helped to prepare the times we live in now.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Very enjoyable and well narrated
- By Larbi on 05-18-08
By: Clive James
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The Man Without Qualities
- By: Robert Musil
- Narrated by: John Telfer
- Length: 60 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 52
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 42
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 43
In 1913, the Viennese aristocracy is gathering to celebrate the 17th jubilee of the accession of Emperor Franz Josef, even as the Austro-Hungarian Empire is collapsing and the rest of Vienna is showing signs of rebellion. At the centre of this social labyrinth is Ulrich: a veteran, a seducer and a scientist, yet also a man 'without qualities' and therefore a brilliant and detached observer of his changing world.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An unmatched intellectual epic
- By Delano on 06-23-22
By: Robert Musil
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Plato's Republic
- By: Plato
- Narrated by: Ray Childs
- Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,533
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,334
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,315
The Republic poses questions that endure: What is justice? What form of community fosters the best possible life for human beings? What is the nature and destiny of the soul? What form of education provides the best leaders for a good republic? What are the various forms of poetry and the other arts, and which ones should be fostered and which ones should be discouraged? How does knowing differ from believing?
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1 out of 5 stars
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BEWARE: shortened version
- By Dranu on 03-08-20
By: Plato
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From Superman to Man
- By: J.A. Rogers
- Narrated by: Hal Saunders
- Length: 3 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 136
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 120
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Story5 out of 5 stars 119
J.A., Roger's novel, first published in 1917 is a polemic against the ignorance behind racism. The plot is based around a debate between a Pullman porter and a racist politician. The author deals with racism and bigotry in an exemplary way.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Truth vs Lies
- By Vahojeh on 09-05-19
By: J.A. Rogers
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Socrates
- A Man for Our Times
- By: Paul Johnson
- Narrated by: John Curless
- Length: 4 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 173
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 150
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 152
Acclaimed historian and best-selling author Paul Johnson’s books have been translated into dozens of languages. In Socrates: A Man for Our Times, Johnson draws from little-known resources to construct a fascinating account of one of history’s greatest thinkers. Socrates transcended class limitations in Athens during the fifth century B.C. to develop ideas that still shape the way we think about the human body and soul, including the workings of the human mind.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Plat-Soc-Paul
- By Megasaurus on 11-17-12
By: Paul Johnson
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Our Oriental Heritage
- The Story of Civilization, Volume 1
- By: Will Durant
- Narrated by: Robin Field
- Length: 50 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,314
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,170
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,162
The first volume of Will Durant's Pulitzer Prize-winning series, Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization, Volume I chronicles the early history of Egypt, the Middle East, and Asia.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful
- By Michael on 11-30-13
By: Will Durant
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How to Live on 24 Hours a Day
- By: Arnold Bennett
- Narrated by: Eric Brooks
- Length: 1 hr and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 455
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 384
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Story4 out of 5 stars 378
This classic personal time-management book, originally published in 1908, has inspired generations of men and women to live deliberate lives. Not just another collection of timesaving tips, this book is more of a challenge to leave behind mundane everyday concerns, focus on pursuing one's true desires, and live the fullest possible life. Reflection, concentration, and study techniques make it easier to accomplish more truly rewarding undertakings than anyone ever dreamed possible.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Well written, well read.
- By Lauren on 02-21-12
By: Arnold Bennett
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- By: H. L. Mencken
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 6
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American author, scholar, and satirist H.L. Mencken wrote The American Language in 1919, intending to defend American speech from prescriptivist critics. "America itself is unutterably vulgar. But vulgarity, after all, means no more than a yielding to natural impulses in the face of conventional inhibitions, and that yielding to natural impulses is at the heart of all healthy language-making."
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4 out of 5 stars
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3 out of 5 stars
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Backhanded Defense
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Hear a recorded interview between Donald H. Kirkley and H.L. Mencken, American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English.
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Disturber of the Peace
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This fine biography of H. L. Mencken tells of how he rose to his unique position as comic genius and pre-eminent critic of American culture. It is the story of a man whose massive power of invective inspired and infuriated his contemporaries and whose popularity and unpopularity mounted with the frenzied pace of the 1920s.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Revelation
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Notes on Democracy
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- Length: 4 hrs and 49 mins
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 3
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Written during the 1920s, an era that reflects much of our modern times 100 years later, this book by culture critic and scholar Mencken dissects what democracy is. The book’s three parts are “Democratic Man,” “The Democratic State” that includes a chapter on popular will and a chapter on politicians, and “Democracy and Liberty” with a section on corruption under democracy, followed by a “Coda” that discusses the future of democracy.
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5 out of 5 stars
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If only newsmen wrote as this now
- By David on 12-05-23
By: H. L. Mencken
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The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche
- By: Henry Louis Mencken
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 108
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 70
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Story4 out of 5 stars 69
Mention the name of Friedrich Nietzsche almost anywhere and you are apt to receive a strong emotional response, either negatively or positively. Few persons will say they have no opinion. And for good reason. Employing some of the most withering attacks and scathing criticism conceivable against, among other things, Christianity, education, government, Wagner, and the judicial systems of his day, Nietzsche was a one-man wrecking ball of European society in the latter half of the 19th century.
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2 out of 5 stars
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strenuous
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 6
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Performance3 out of 5 stars 5
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 5
American author, scholar, and satirist H.L. Mencken wrote The American Language in 1919, intending to defend American speech from prescriptivist critics. "America itself is unutterably vulgar. But vulgarity, after all, means no more than a yielding to natural impulses in the face of conventional inhibitions, and that yielding to natural impulses is at the heart of all healthy language-making."
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4 out of 5 stars
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By: H. L. Mencken
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In Defense of Women
- By: H. L. Mencken
- Narrated by: Fred Williams
- Length: 5 hrs and 15 mins
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 65
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 56
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Story4 out of 5 stars 57
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3 out of 5 stars
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By: H. L. Mencken
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- By: William Manchester
- Narrated by: Anthony Heald
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 121
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5 out of 5 stars
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- By: H. L. Mencken
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 3
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 2
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Story5 out of 5 stars 2
Written during the 1920s, an era that reflects much of our modern times 100 years later, this book by culture critic and scholar Mencken dissects what democracy is. The book’s three parts are “Democratic Man,” “The Democratic State” that includes a chapter on popular will and a chapter on politicians, and “Democracy and Liberty” with a section on corruption under democracy, followed by a “Coda” that discusses the future of democracy.
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5 out of 5 stars
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If only newsmen wrote as this now
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Mention the name of Friedrich Nietzsche almost anywhere and you are apt to receive a strong emotional response, either negatively or positively. Few persons will say they have no opinion. And for good reason. Employing some of the most withering attacks and scathing criticism conceivable against, among other things, Christianity, education, government, Wagner, and the judicial systems of his day, Nietzsche was a one-man wrecking ball of European society in the latter half of the 19th century.
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What listeners say about A Mencken Chrestomathy
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- N. Martin
- 06-24-22
Sensational Mencken
Amid the present cacophony there is no Mencken to be found; not even close. So it is with immense pleasure that one rereads, and in this case listens, to Mencken’s uncensored ideas conveyed in his glistening and unequaled use of American English. Gardner makes the text his own, as always. My lone complaint is that on the Apple Watch the chapters are displayed only numerically, and so it is difficult to figure out how to get back to a particular chapter.
Starting next with Mencken’s Notes on Democracy, I’d be a happy cherub if the complete works of H. L., Thomas Szasz, and Richard Mitchell were reproduced in audio.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- David Trindle
- 09-13-22
Not Mencken’s best work
The sections in the first half of this recording are pretty good.
The second half of the recording is far from Meghan‘s best work. It is biased, negative, critical, bigoted,And, worst of all not entertaining.
This Compilation needs a good editor
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Zachary Martin
- 06-05-21
His own selection of his writings.
Funnier, wiser, smarter than any satirist today. Ranks with Swift and Voltaire. For anyone like me who can get filled with misanthropic despair over current events in our republic, his writings are a helpful reminder that things were worse, much worse, 100 years ago. And that amusement is the only useful, intelligent response to the dreadful, moronic antics of the horrible human race.
And to celebrate intelligence, beauty, and nobility, what precious little of it exists in this world, as a rare gift.
Finally, Grover Gardner is simply perfect. I will always in the future read Mencken with his voice in my head.
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Theodore A. Fiolek
- 08-19-21
Thank you Audible for bringing this to you library
The greatest book of all time read by the greatest voice of all time. Does it get any better than this?
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1 person found this helpful