Fear of Falling
The Inner Life of the Middle Class
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
Prime members: New to Audible?Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Fear of Falling
Buy for $21.83
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Carmela Marner
-
Molly Parker Myers
About this listen
A brilliant and insightful exploration of the rise and fall of the American middle class by New York Times best-selling author Barbara Ehrenreich. One of Barbara Ehrenreich's most classic and prophetic works, Fear of Falling closely examines the insecurities of the American middle class in an attempt to explain its turn to the right during the last two decades of the 20th century.
Weaving finely-tuned expert analysis with her trademark voice, Ehrenreich traces the myths about the middle class to their roots, determines what led to the shrinking of what was once a healthy percentage of the population, and how, in its ambition and anxiety, that population has retreated from responsible leadership.
Newly reissued and timely as ever, Fear of Falling places the middle class of yesterday under the microscope and reveals exactly how we arrived at the middle class of today.
©2020 Barbara Ehrenreich (P)2020 TwelveListeners also enjoyed...
-
Nickel and Dimed
- On (Not) Getting By in America
- By: Barbara Ehrenreich
- Narrated by: Cristine McMurdo-Wallis
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,574
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,002
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 1,001
This engrossing piece of undercover reportage has been a fixture on the New York Times best seller list since its publication. With nearly a million copies in print, Nickel and Dimed is a modern classic that deftly portrays the plight of America's working-class poor.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Good concept, but poor execution.
- By Marco Forcone on 08-24-04
-
Bright-sided
- How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America
- By: Barbara Ehrenreich
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 494
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 316
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 314
Americans are a "positive" people—cheerful, optimistic, and upbeat: this is our reputation as well as our self-image. But more than a temperament, being positive, we are told, is the key to success and prosperity. In this utterly original take on the American frame of mind, Barbara Ehrenreich traces the strange career of our sunny outlook from its origins as a marginal nineteenth-century healing technique to its enshrinement as a dominant, almost mandatory, cultural attitude.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Balanced
- By Alyssa B. Goss on 10-22-09
-
Had I Known
- Collected Essays
- By: Barbara Ehrenreich
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 23
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 19
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 19
A self-proclaimed "myth buster by trade," Barbara Ehrenreich has covered an extensive range of topics as a journalist and political activist, and is unafraid to dive into intellectual waters that others deem too murky. Now, Had I Known gathers the articles and excerpts from a long-ranging career that most highlight Ehrenreich's brilliance, social consciousness, and wry wit.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Brilliant, of course
- By W. Carillion on 10-13-24
-
Maid
- Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive
- By: Stephanie Land, Barbara Ehrenreich - foreword
- Narrated by: Stephanie Land
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 4,711
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,133
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,131
At 28, Stephanie Land's dreams of attending a university and becoming a writer quickly dissolved when a summer fling turned into an unplanned pregnancy. Before long, she found herself a single mother, scraping by as a housekeeper to make ends meet. Maid is an emotionally raw, masterful account of Stephanie's years spent in service to upper-middle-class America as a "nameless ghost" who quietly shared in her clients' triumphs, tragedies, and deepest secrets.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Very engaging
- By NMwritergal on 01-24-19
By: Stephanie Land, and others
-
Blood Rites
- Origins and History of the Passions of War
- By: Barbara Ehrenreich
- Narrated by: Amy Landon
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 10
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 7
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 7
What draws our species to war? What makes us see violence as a kind of sacred duty, or a ritual that boys must undergo to "become" men? Newly reissued, Blood Rites takes listeners on an original journey from the elaborate human sacrifices of the ancient world to the carnage and holocaust of 20th-century "total war." Ehrenreich sifts deftly through the fragile records of prehistory and discovers the wellspring of war in an unexpected place - not in a "killer instinct" unique to the males of our species, but in the blood rites early humans performed.
-
Doppelganger
- A Trip into the Mirror World
- By: Naomi Klein
- Narrated by: Naomi Klein
- Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 739
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 679
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 678
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.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Elite Psychobabble
- By A Reviewer on 09-30-23
By: Naomi Klein
-
Nickel and Dimed
- On (Not) Getting By in America
- By: Barbara Ehrenreich
- Narrated by: Cristine McMurdo-Wallis
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,574
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,002
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 1,001
This engrossing piece of undercover reportage has been a fixture on the New York Times best seller list since its publication. With nearly a million copies in print, Nickel and Dimed is a modern classic that deftly portrays the plight of America's working-class poor.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Good concept, but poor execution.
- By Marco Forcone on 08-24-04
-
Bright-sided
- How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America
- By: Barbara Ehrenreich
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 494
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 316
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 314
Americans are a "positive" people—cheerful, optimistic, and upbeat: this is our reputation as well as our self-image. But more than a temperament, being positive, we are told, is the key to success and prosperity. In this utterly original take on the American frame of mind, Barbara Ehrenreich traces the strange career of our sunny outlook from its origins as a marginal nineteenth-century healing technique to its enshrinement as a dominant, almost mandatory, cultural attitude.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Balanced
- By Alyssa B. Goss on 10-22-09
-
Had I Known
- Collected Essays
- By: Barbara Ehrenreich
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 23
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 19
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 19
A self-proclaimed "myth buster by trade," Barbara Ehrenreich has covered an extensive range of topics as a journalist and political activist, and is unafraid to dive into intellectual waters that others deem too murky. Now, Had I Known gathers the articles and excerpts from a long-ranging career that most highlight Ehrenreich's brilliance, social consciousness, and wry wit.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Brilliant, of course
- By W. Carillion on 10-13-24
-
Maid
- Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive
- By: Stephanie Land, Barbara Ehrenreich - foreword
- Narrated by: Stephanie Land
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 4,711
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,133
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,131
At 28, Stephanie Land's dreams of attending a university and becoming a writer quickly dissolved when a summer fling turned into an unplanned pregnancy. Before long, she found herself a single mother, scraping by as a housekeeper to make ends meet. Maid is an emotionally raw, masterful account of Stephanie's years spent in service to upper-middle-class America as a "nameless ghost" who quietly shared in her clients' triumphs, tragedies, and deepest secrets.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Very engaging
- By NMwritergal on 01-24-19
By: Stephanie Land, and others
-
Blood Rites
- Origins and History of the Passions of War
- By: Barbara Ehrenreich
- Narrated by: Amy Landon
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 10
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 7
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 7
What draws our species to war? What makes us see violence as a kind of sacred duty, or a ritual that boys must undergo to "become" men? Newly reissued, Blood Rites takes listeners on an original journey from the elaborate human sacrifices of the ancient world to the carnage and holocaust of 20th-century "total war." Ehrenreich sifts deftly through the fragile records of prehistory and discovers the wellspring of war in an unexpected place - not in a "killer instinct" unique to the males of our species, but in the blood rites early humans performed.
-
Doppelganger
- A Trip into the Mirror World
- By: Naomi Klein
- Narrated by: Naomi Klein
- Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 739
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 679
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 678
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.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Elite Psychobabble
- By A Reviewer on 09-30-23
By: Naomi Klein
-
Elite Capture
- How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (and Everything Else)
- By: Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò
- Narrated by: Jaime Lincoln Smth
- Length: 3 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 165
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 136
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 136
“Identity politics” is everywhere, polarizing discourse from the campaign trail to the classroom. But the “identity politics” so compulsively referenced bears little resemblance to the concept as first introduced by the radical Black feminist Combahee River Collective. While the Collective articulated a political viewpoint grounded in their own position as Black lesbians with the explicit aim of building solidarity across lines of difference, “identity politics” is now frequently weaponized as a means of closing ranks around ever-narrower conceptions of group interests.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
An Essential Read
- By TheFrozenBiscuit on 04-22-23
-
Poverty, by America
- By: Matthew Desmond
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 5 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 856
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 755
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 754
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?
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A testimonial based on facts and witness
- By Alonzo Nightjar on 03-27-23
By: Matthew Desmond
-
Tyranny, Inc.
- How Private Power Crushed American Liberty—and What to Do About It
- By: Sohrab Ahmari
- Narrated by: Sohrab Ahmari
- Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 26
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 23
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 23
Over the past two generations, U.S. leaders deregulated big business on the faith that it would yield a better economy and a freer society. But the opposite happened. Americans lost stable, well-paying jobs, Wall Street dominated industry to the detriment of the middle class and local communities, and corporations began to subject us to total surveillance, even dictating what we are, and aren’t, allowed to think. The corporate titans and mega-donors who aligned themselves with this vision knew exactly what they were getting: perfect conditions for what Sohrab Ahmari calls “private tyranny”.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Doesn't address the whole picture
- By Penelope M on 09-18-23
By: Sohrab Ahmari
-
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
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 11,002
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 9,751
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 9,699
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.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Thought provoking!
- By Girl with curls on 09-16-20
By: Candace Owens, and others
-
The United States of Socialism
- Who's Behind It. Why It's Evil. How to Stop It.
- By: Dinesh D'Souza
- Narrated by: Dinesh D'Souza
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 2,832
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 2,473
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 2,458
For those who witnessed the global collapse of socialism, its resurrection in the 21st century comes as a surprise, even a shock. How can socialism work now when it has never worked before? In this pathbreaking audiobook, best-selling author Dinesh D’Souza argues that the socialism advanced today by the likes of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders, Ilhan Omar, and Elizabeth Warren is very different from the socialism of Lenin, Mao, and Castro.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Thank you again Mr. D'Souza
- By Karen K. Morrison on 06-04-20
By: Dinesh D'Souza
-
The Dawn of Everything
- A New History of Humanity
- By: David Graeber, David Wengrow
- Narrated by: Mark Williams
- Length: 24 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,861
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,400
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,389
A trailblazing account of human history, challenging our most fundamental assumptions about social evolution—from the development of agriculture and cities to the emergence of "the state", political violence, and social inequality—and revealing new possibilities for human emancipation.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
exactly what I've been looking for
- By DankTurtle on 11-10-21
By: David Graeber, and others
-
The Undertow
- Scenes from a Slow Civil War
- By: Jeff Sharlet
- Narrated by: Jeff Sharlet
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 181
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 157
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 157
An unmatched guide to the religious dimensions of American politics, Jeff Sharlet journeys into corners of our national psyche where others fear to tread. The Undertow is both inquiry and meditation, an attempt to understand how, over the last decade, reaction has morphed into delusion, social division into distrust, distrust into paranoia, and hatred into fantasies—sometimes realities—of violence.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
I'm just not feeling this one....
- By J. Richmond on 08-04-23
By: Jeff Sharlet
-
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
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 93
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 78
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 78
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.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Terrific rundown of Fox
- By Iread on 10-05-23
By: Michael Wolff
-
American Exception
- Empire and the Deep State
- By: Aaron Good
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 114
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 100
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 100
To trace the evolution of the American state, Aaron Good takes a deep-politics approach. The term “deep state” was badly misappropriated during the Trump era. In the simplest sense, it here refers to all those institutions that collectively exercise undemocratic power over state and society. To trace how we arrived at this point, American Exception explores various deep state institutions and history-making interventions.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
I buy the premises, but not the conclusions...
- By Clark on 01-05-23
By: Aaron Good
-
City of Quartz
- Excavating the Future in Los Angeles
- By: Mike Davis
- Narrated by: Tim Campbell
- Length: 15 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 156
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 121
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 120
No metropolis has been more loved or more hated. To its official boosters, "Los Angeles brings it all together". To detractors, LA is a sunlit mortuary where "you can rot without feeling it". To Mike Davis, the author of this fiercely elegant and wide-ranging work of social history, Los Angeles is both utopia and dystopia, a place where the last Joshua trees are being plowed under to make room for model communities in the desert, where the rich have hired their own police to fend off street gangs, as well as armed Beirut militias.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
A People’s History of Los Angeles
- By J. Briggs on 08-03-18
By: Mike Davis
-
If We Burn
- The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution
- By: Vincent Bevins
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 84
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 74
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 74
From 2010 to 2020, more people participated in protests than at any other point in human history. Yet we are not living in more just and democratic societies as a result. IF WE BURN is a stirring work of history built around a single, vital question: How did so many mass protests lead to the opposite of what they asked for?
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The final word on horizontalism on the left
- By Patrick Foote on 02-25-24
By: Vincent Bevins
-
How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement
- By: Fredrik deBoer
- Narrated by: Sean Patrick Hopkins
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 42
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 36
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 36
In 2020, while the COVID-19 pandemic raged, the US was hit by a ripple of political discontent the likes of which had not been seen since the 1960s. The spark was the viral video of the horrific police murder of an unarmed Black man. The killing of George Floyd galvanized a nation already reeling from COVID and a toxic political cycle. Tens of thousands poured into the streets to protest. The entire country suddenly seemed to be roaring for change in one voice. Then nothing much happened. Fredrik deBoer explores why these passionate movements failed and how they could succeed in the future.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Short and not so sweet
- By Amanda Venegas on 09-08-23
By: Fredrik deBoer
Related to this topic
-
The Age of Entitlement
- America Since the Sixties
- By: Christopher Caldwell
- Narrated by: Christopher Caldwell
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 672
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 583
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 578
A major American intellectual makes the historical case that the reforms of the 1960s, reforms intended to make the nation more just and humane, instead left many Americans feeling alienated, despised, misled - and ready to put an adventurer in the White House. Christopher Caldwell has spent years studying the liberal uprising of the 1960s and its unforeseen consequences. Even the reforms that Americans love best have come with costs that are staggeringly high - in wealth, freedom, and social stability - and that have been spread unevenly among classes and generations.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Do laudable ends justify unconstitutional means?
- By LBJ on 02-08-20
-
The 9.9 Percent
- The New Aristocracy That Is Entrenching Inequality and Warping Our Culture
- By: Matthew Stewart
- Narrated by: Sean Patrick Hopkins
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 71
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 62
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 61
In 21st century America, the top 0.1 percent of the wealth distribution have walked away with the big prizes even while the bottom 90 percent have lost ground. What’s left of the American Dream has taken refuge in the 9.9 percent that lies just below the tip of extreme wealth. Collectively, the members of this group control more than half of the wealth in the country - and they are doing whatever it takes to hang on to their piece of the action in an increasingly unjust system.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fantastic
- By Davena on 01-05-23
By: Matthew Stewart
-
Eurotrash
- Why America Must Reject the Failed Ideas of a Dying Continent
- By: David Harsanyi
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 98
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 85
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 82
Europe has been declining under the weight of its antiquated institutions, economic fatigue, moral anemia, and cultural surrender. Yet American politicians, technocrats, academics, and pundits argue, with increasing popularity, that Americans should look across the Atlantic for solutions to the nation’s problems, including on issues like health care, the welfare state, immigration, and a bloated bureaucracy.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Details on many ways Europe is lacking
- By Alicia B. on 11-15-21
By: David Harsanyi
-
The Upswing
- How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again
- By: Robert D. Putnam, Shaylyn Romney Garrett - contributor
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 138
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 117
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 117
Deep and accelerating inequality; unprecedented political polarization; vitriolic public discourse; a fraying social fabric; public and private narcissism — Americans today seem to agree on only one thing: This is the worst of times. But we’ve been here before. During the Gilded Age of the late 1800s, America was highly individualistic, starkly unequal, fiercely polarized, and deeply fragmented, just as it is today.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
For Progressives only. Won't make sense otherwise
- By Dennis G. on 12-19-20
By: Robert D. Putnam, and others
-
The Way We Never Were
- American Families and the Nostalgia Trap
- By: Stephanie Coontz
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 17 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 69
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 54
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 54
Leave It to Beaver was not a documentary, a man's home has never been his castle, the "male breadwinner marriage" is the least traditional family in history, and rape and sexual assault were far higher in the 1970s than they are today. In The Way We Never Were, acclaimed historian Stephanie Coontz examines two centuries of the American family, sweeping away misconceptions about the past that cloud current debates about domestic life. The 1950s do not present a workable model of how to conduct our personal lives today, Coontz argues.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
fantastic report on the dangers of nostalgia
- By Richard Stine on 06-29-21
By: Stephanie Coontz
-
The Smallest Minority
- Independent Thinking in the Age of Mob Politics
- By: Kevin D. Williamson
- Narrated by: Stephen Graybill
- Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 244
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 210
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 209
Listener beware: Kevin D. Williamson - the lively, literary firebrand from National Review who was too hot for The Atlantic to handle - comes to bury democracy, not to praise it. With electrifying honesty and spirit, Williamson takes a flamethrower to mob politics, the “beast with many heads” that haunts social media and what currently passes for real life. It’s destroying our capacity for individualism and dragging us down “the Road to Smurfdom, the place where the deracinated demos of the Twitter age finds itself feeling small and blue.”
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Brutally honest, accurate and relevant
- By Sean on 09-19-19
-
The Age of Entitlement
- America Since the Sixties
- By: Christopher Caldwell
- Narrated by: Christopher Caldwell
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 672
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 583
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 578
A major American intellectual makes the historical case that the reforms of the 1960s, reforms intended to make the nation more just and humane, instead left many Americans feeling alienated, despised, misled - and ready to put an adventurer in the White House. Christopher Caldwell has spent years studying the liberal uprising of the 1960s and its unforeseen consequences. Even the reforms that Americans love best have come with costs that are staggeringly high - in wealth, freedom, and social stability - and that have been spread unevenly among classes and generations.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Do laudable ends justify unconstitutional means?
- By LBJ on 02-08-20
-
The 9.9 Percent
- The New Aristocracy That Is Entrenching Inequality and Warping Our Culture
- By: Matthew Stewart
- Narrated by: Sean Patrick Hopkins
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 71
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 62
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 61
In 21st century America, the top 0.1 percent of the wealth distribution have walked away with the big prizes even while the bottom 90 percent have lost ground. What’s left of the American Dream has taken refuge in the 9.9 percent that lies just below the tip of extreme wealth. Collectively, the members of this group control more than half of the wealth in the country - and they are doing whatever it takes to hang on to their piece of the action in an increasingly unjust system.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fantastic
- By Davena on 01-05-23
By: Matthew Stewart
-
Eurotrash
- Why America Must Reject the Failed Ideas of a Dying Continent
- By: David Harsanyi
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 98
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 85
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 82
Europe has been declining under the weight of its antiquated institutions, economic fatigue, moral anemia, and cultural surrender. Yet American politicians, technocrats, academics, and pundits argue, with increasing popularity, that Americans should look across the Atlantic for solutions to the nation’s problems, including on issues like health care, the welfare state, immigration, and a bloated bureaucracy.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Details on many ways Europe is lacking
- By Alicia B. on 11-15-21
By: David Harsanyi
-
The Upswing
- How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again
- By: Robert D. Putnam, Shaylyn Romney Garrett - contributor
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 138
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 117
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 117
Deep and accelerating inequality; unprecedented political polarization; vitriolic public discourse; a fraying social fabric; public and private narcissism — Americans today seem to agree on only one thing: This is the worst of times. But we’ve been here before. During the Gilded Age of the late 1800s, America was highly individualistic, starkly unequal, fiercely polarized, and deeply fragmented, just as it is today.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
For Progressives only. Won't make sense otherwise
- By Dennis G. on 12-19-20
By: Robert D. Putnam, and others
-
The Way We Never Were
- American Families and the Nostalgia Trap
- By: Stephanie Coontz
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 17 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 69
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 54
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 54
Leave It to Beaver was not a documentary, a man's home has never been his castle, the "male breadwinner marriage" is the least traditional family in history, and rape and sexual assault were far higher in the 1970s than they are today. In The Way We Never Were, acclaimed historian Stephanie Coontz examines two centuries of the American family, sweeping away misconceptions about the past that cloud current debates about domestic life. The 1950s do not present a workable model of how to conduct our personal lives today, Coontz argues.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
fantastic report on the dangers of nostalgia
- By Richard Stine on 06-29-21
By: Stephanie Coontz
-
The Smallest Minority
- Independent Thinking in the Age of Mob Politics
- By: Kevin D. Williamson
- Narrated by: Stephen Graybill
- Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 244
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 210
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 209
Listener beware: Kevin D. Williamson - the lively, literary firebrand from National Review who was too hot for The Atlantic to handle - comes to bury democracy, not to praise it. With electrifying honesty and spirit, Williamson takes a flamethrower to mob politics, the “beast with many heads” that haunts social media and what currently passes for real life. It’s destroying our capacity for individualism and dragging us down “the Road to Smurfdom, the place where the deracinated demos of the Twitter age finds itself feeling small and blue.”
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Brutally honest, accurate and relevant
- By Sean on 09-19-19
-
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
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 11,002
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 9,751
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 9,699
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.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Thought provoking!
- By Girl with curls on 09-16-20
By: Candace Owens, and others
-
White Feminism
- From the Suffragettes to Influencers and Who They Leave Behind
- By: Koa Beck
- Narrated by: Koa Beck
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 85
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 73
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 72
Addressing today’s conversation about race, empowerment, and inclusion in America, Koa Beck, writer and former editor-in-chief of Jezebel, boldly examines the history of feminism, from the true mission of the suffragists to the rise of corporate feminism with clear-eyed scrutiny and meticulous detail. She also examines overlooked communities - including Native American, Muslim, transgender, and more - and their ongoing struggles for social change.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Visionary!
- By J. F. Beck on 01-06-21
By: Koa Beck
-
What Were We Thinking
- A Brief Intellectual History of the Trump Era
- By: Carlos Lozada
- Narrated by: Christian Barillas
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 183
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 154
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 154
It is an irony of our age that a man who rarely reads has unleashed an onslaught of books about his tenure and his time. Dissections of the white working class. Manifestos of political resistance. Works on identity, gender, and migration. Memoirs on race and protest. Revelations of White House mayhem. Warnings over the future of conservatism, progressivism, and of American democracy itself.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Useful book
- By Kindle Customer on 11-22-20
By: Carlos Lozada
-
Discrimination and Disparities
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 5 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 4,048
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 3,520
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 3,495
Discrimination and Disparities challenges believers in such one-factor explanations of economic outcome differences as discrimination, exploitation, or genetics. It is listenable enough for people with no prior knowledge of economics. Yet the empirical evidence with which it backs up its analysis spans the globe and challenges beliefs across the ideological spectrum.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Hard Pill To Swallow - I’m better for it
- By Charles on 01-14-19
By: Thomas Sowell
-
Suicide of the West
- How the Rebirth of Tribalism, Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics is Destroying American Democracy
- By: Jonah Goldberg
- Narrated by: Jonah Goldberg
- Length: 16 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,401
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,265
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,243
Only once in the last 250,000 years have humans stumbled upon a way to lift ourselves out of the endless cycle of poverty, hunger, and war that defines most of history. If democracy, individualism, and the free market were humankind’s destiny, they should have appeared and taken hold a bit earlier in the evolutionary record. The emergence of freedom and prosperity was nothing short of a miracle.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Put some gratitude in your attitude
- By Amazon Customer on 04-25-18
By: Jonah Goldberg
-
The Socialist Temptation
- By: Iain Murray
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 22
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 20
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 20
Just 30 years ago, socialism seemed utterly discredited. An economic, moral, and political failure, socialism had rightly been thrown on the ash heap of history after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Unfortunately, bad ideas never truly go away — and socialism has come back with a vengeance. A generation of young people who don’t remember the misery that socialism inflicted on Russia and Eastern Europe is embracing it all over again.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Full Of Important Insights
- By Ralph Alderson on 12-17-20
By: Iain Murray
-
The Age of American Unreason
- By: Susan Jacoby
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 14 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 267
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 152
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 154
Combining historical analysis with contemporary observation, Susan Jacoby dissects a new American cultural phenomenon - one that is at odds with our heritage of Enlightenment reason and with modern, secular knowledge and science. With mordant wit, Jacoby surveys an antirationalist landscape extending from pop culture to a pseudo-intellectual universe of "junk thought".
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Interesting, but explanation by redescription
- By T. Andrew Poehlman on 07-15-08
By: Susan Jacoby
-
The Rise of the New Puritans
- Fighting Back Against Progressives’ War on Fun
- By: Noah Rothman
- Narrated by: Noah Rothman
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 161
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 150
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 150
The Left used to be the party of the hippies and the free spirits. Now it’s home to woke scolds and humorless idealogues. The New Puritans can judge a person’s moral character by their clothes, Netflix queue, fast food favorites, the sports they watch, and the company they keep. No choice is neutral, no sphere is private. Not since the Puritans has a political movement wanted so much power over your thoughts, hobbies, and preferences every minute of your day. In the process, they are sucking the joy out of life.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great, fast summer read
- By Joseph Spiegel on 07-18-22
By: Noah Rothman
-
The 10 Big Lies About America
- Combating Destructive Distortions About Our Nation
- By: Michael Medved
- Narrated by: Michael Medved
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 98
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 65
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 64
In this bold and brilliantly argued book, acclaimed author and talk-radio host Michael Medved zeroes in on 10 of the biggest fallacies that millions of Americans believe about our country - in spite of incontrovertible facts to the contrary. In The 10 Big Lies About America, Medved pinpoints the most pernicious pieces of America-bashing disinformation that pollute current debates about the economy, race, religion in politics, the Iraq war, and other contentious issues.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Truth
- By Dominique Bessette on 01-23-17
By: Michael Medved
-
Liberal Fascism
- The Secret History of the American Left
- By: Jonah Goldberg
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 15 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,183
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 767
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 767
"Fascists", "Brownshirts", "jackbooted stormtroopers" - such are the insults typically hurled at conservatives by their liberal opponents. Calling someone a fascist is the fastest way to shut them up, defining their views as beyond the political pale. But who are the real fascists in our midst?
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great book
- By Mark on 05-10-08
By: Jonah Goldberg
-
Brainwashed
- Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority
- By: Tom Burrell
- Narrated by: Sylvester Brown Jr.
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 120
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 98
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 99
"Black people are not dark-skinned white people", says advertising visionary Tom Burrell. In fact, they are much more. They are survivors of the Middle Passage and centuries of humiliation and deprivation, who have excelled against the odds, constantly making a way out of "No way!" At this pivotal point in history, the idea of Black inferiority should have had a "Going-Out-of-Business Sale." After all, Barack Obama reached America's Promised Land. Yet, as Brainwashed testifies, too many in Black America are still wandering in the wilderness.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Guidance against the odds.
- By Henry Lee Faulkner on 01-05-21
By: Tom Burrell
-
The Trouble with White Women
- A Counterhistory of Feminism
- By: Kyla Schuller, Brittney Cooper - foreword
- Narrated by: Christine Lakin, Mela Lee
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 74
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 67
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 67
Women including Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Margaret Sanger, and Sheryl Sandberg are commonly celebrated as leaders of feminism. Yet they have fought for the few, not the many. As award-winning scholar Kyla Schuller argues, their White feminist politics dispossess the most marginalized to liberate themselves. In The Trouble with White Women, Schuller brings to life the 200-year counter-history of Black, Indigenous, Latina, poor, queer, and trans women pushing back against White feminists and uniting to dismantle systemic injustice.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Reframes the past by today’s standards
- By Dianne on 02-21-23
By: Kyla Schuller, and others
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Nickel and Dimed
- On (Not) Getting By in America
- By: Barbara Ehrenreich
- Narrated by: Cristine McMurdo-Wallis
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,574
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,002
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 1,001
This engrossing piece of undercover reportage has been a fixture on the New York Times best seller list since its publication. With nearly a million copies in print, Nickel and Dimed is a modern classic that deftly portrays the plight of America's working-class poor.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Good concept, but poor execution.
- By Marco Forcone on 08-24-04
-
Bait and Switch
- The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream
- By: Barbara Ehrenreich
- Narrated by: Anne Twomey
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 211
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 59
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 59
The best-selling author of Nickel and Dimed goes back undercover to do for America's ailing middle class what she did for the working poor. Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed explored the lives of low-wage workers. Now, in Bait and Switch, she enters another hidden realm of the economy: the world of the white-collar unemployed.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
A terrible book - princess Barbara goes undercover
- By Peter on 11-07-05
-
Natural Causes
- By: Barbara Ehrenreich
- Narrated by: Joyce Bean
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 293
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 244
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 239
A razor-sharp polemic that offers an entirely new understanding of our bodies, ourselves, and our place in the universe, Natural Causes describes how we overprepare and worry way too much about what is inevitable. One by one, Ehrenreich topples the shibboleths that guide our attempts to live a long, healthy life—from the importance of preventive medical screenings to the concepts of wellness and mindfulness, from dietary fads to fitness culture. But Natural Causes goes deeper—into the fundamental unreliability of our bodies and even our "mind-bodies", to use the fashionable term.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Not what I expect from this author
- By Joanie C on 04-20-18
-
Had I Known
- Collected Essays
- By: Barbara Ehrenreich
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 23
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 19
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 19
A self-proclaimed "myth buster by trade," Barbara Ehrenreich has covered an extensive range of topics as a journalist and political activist, and is unafraid to dive into intellectual waters that others deem too murky. Now, Had I Known gathers the articles and excerpts from a long-ranging career that most highlight Ehrenreich's brilliance, social consciousness, and wry wit.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Brilliant, of course
- By W. Carillion on 10-13-24
-
Blood Rites
- Origins and History of the Passions of War
- By: Barbara Ehrenreich
- Narrated by: Amy Landon
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 10
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 7
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 7
What draws our species to war? What makes us see violence as a kind of sacred duty, or a ritual that boys must undergo to "become" men? Newly reissued, Blood Rites takes listeners on an original journey from the elaborate human sacrifices of the ancient world to the carnage and holocaust of 20th-century "total war." Ehrenreich sifts deftly through the fragile records of prehistory and discovers the wellspring of war in an unexpected place - not in a "killer instinct" unique to the males of our species, but in the blood rites early humans performed.
-
Bright-sided
- How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America
- By: Barbara Ehrenreich
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 494
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 316
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 314
Americans are a "positive" people—cheerful, optimistic, and upbeat: this is our reputation as well as our self-image. But more than a temperament, being positive, we are told, is the key to success and prosperity. In this utterly original take on the American frame of mind, Barbara Ehrenreich traces the strange career of our sunny outlook from its origins as a marginal nineteenth-century healing technique to its enshrinement as a dominant, almost mandatory, cultural attitude.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Balanced
- By Alyssa B. Goss on 10-22-09
-
Nickel and Dimed
- On (Not) Getting By in America
- By: Barbara Ehrenreich
- Narrated by: Cristine McMurdo-Wallis
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,574
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,002
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 1,001
This engrossing piece of undercover reportage has been a fixture on the New York Times best seller list since its publication. With nearly a million copies in print, Nickel and Dimed is a modern classic that deftly portrays the plight of America's working-class poor.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Good concept, but poor execution.
- By Marco Forcone on 08-24-04
-
Bait and Switch
- The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream
- By: Barbara Ehrenreich
- Narrated by: Anne Twomey
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 211
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 59
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 59
The best-selling author of Nickel and Dimed goes back undercover to do for America's ailing middle class what she did for the working poor. Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed explored the lives of low-wage workers. Now, in Bait and Switch, she enters another hidden realm of the economy: the world of the white-collar unemployed.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
A terrible book - princess Barbara goes undercover
- By Peter on 11-07-05
-
Natural Causes
- By: Barbara Ehrenreich
- Narrated by: Joyce Bean
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 293
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 244
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 239
A razor-sharp polemic that offers an entirely new understanding of our bodies, ourselves, and our place in the universe, Natural Causes describes how we overprepare and worry way too much about what is inevitable. One by one, Ehrenreich topples the shibboleths that guide our attempts to live a long, healthy life—from the importance of preventive medical screenings to the concepts of wellness and mindfulness, from dietary fads to fitness culture. But Natural Causes goes deeper—into the fundamental unreliability of our bodies and even our "mind-bodies", to use the fashionable term.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Not what I expect from this author
- By Joanie C on 04-20-18
-
Had I Known
- Collected Essays
- By: Barbara Ehrenreich
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 23
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 19
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 19
A self-proclaimed "myth buster by trade," Barbara Ehrenreich has covered an extensive range of topics as a journalist and political activist, and is unafraid to dive into intellectual waters that others deem too murky. Now, Had I Known gathers the articles and excerpts from a long-ranging career that most highlight Ehrenreich's brilliance, social consciousness, and wry wit.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Brilliant, of course
- By W. Carillion on 10-13-24
-
Blood Rites
- Origins and History of the Passions of War
- By: Barbara Ehrenreich
- Narrated by: Amy Landon
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 10
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 7
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 7
What draws our species to war? What makes us see violence as a kind of sacred duty, or a ritual that boys must undergo to "become" men? Newly reissued, Blood Rites takes listeners on an original journey from the elaborate human sacrifices of the ancient world to the carnage and holocaust of 20th-century "total war." Ehrenreich sifts deftly through the fragile records of prehistory and discovers the wellspring of war in an unexpected place - not in a "killer instinct" unique to the males of our species, but in the blood rites early humans performed.
-
Bright-sided
- How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America
- By: Barbara Ehrenreich
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 494
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 316
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 314
Americans are a "positive" people—cheerful, optimistic, and upbeat: this is our reputation as well as our self-image. But more than a temperament, being positive, we are told, is the key to success and prosperity. In this utterly original take on the American frame of mind, Barbara Ehrenreich traces the strange career of our sunny outlook from its origins as a marginal nineteenth-century healing technique to its enshrinement as a dominant, almost mandatory, cultural attitude.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Balanced
- By Alyssa B. Goss on 10-22-09