
First Freedom
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Narrated by:
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Danny Campbell
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By:
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David Harsanyi
About this listen
From “one of America’s smartest political writers” (Glenn Beck) comes a fascinating and accessible history of the United States’ unique and enduring relationship with guns, for fans of Chris Kyle’s American Gun.
For America, the gun is a story of innovation, power, violence, character, and freedom.
From the founding of the nation to the pioneering of the West, from the freeing of the slaves to the urbanization of the 20th century, our country has had a complex and lasting relationship with firearms. Now, in First Freedom, nationally syndicated columnist and veteran writer David Harsanyi explores the ways in which firearms have helped preserve our religious, economic, and cultural institutions for more than two centuries. From Samuel Colt’s early entrepreneurism to the successful firearms technology that helped make the US a superpower, the gun is inextricably tied to our exceptional rise.
In the vein of popular histories like Salt and Seabiscuit, Harsanyi takes you on a captivating and thrilling ride of Second Amendment history that demonstrates why guns are not only an integral part of America’s past, but also an essential part of its future.
©2018 David Harsanyi (P)2018 Simon & SchusterListeners also enjoyed...
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- The Astonishing Odyssey of Five Boys Along the Reverse Underground Railroad
- By: Richard Bell
- Narrated by: Leon Nixon
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Philadelphia, 1825: Five young, free Black boys fall into the clutches of the most fearsome gang of kidnappers and slavers in the US. Lured onto a small ship with the promise of food and pay, they are instead met with blindfolds, ropes, and knives. Over four long months, their kidnappers drive them overland into the Cotton Kingdom to be sold as slaves. Determined to resist, the boys form a tight brotherhood as they struggle to free themselves and find their way home.
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Should have been a fact based novel
- By Cate F. on 01-11-21
By: Richard Bell
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Damn the Valley
- 1st Platoon, Bravo Company, 2-508 PIR, 82nd Airborne in the Arghandab River Valley Afghanistan
- By: William Yeske, LTG Ben Hodges - Foreword USA (Ret.)
- Narrated by: Basil Sands, William Yeske
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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"DAMN THE VALLEY" was a phrase regularly uttered by the men that spent any amount of time in the Arghandab River Valley during the deployment of 2 Fury to Afghanistan in 2009-2010. The valley has claimed bodies from the troops of Alexander the Great, the British Empire, and more recently, the Russian Army. Operating in the valley was like nothing the men could have envisaged, they called it the "meat grinder." It was a deployment that the media didn't talk about, and the government doesn't acknowledge.
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Horrible in every way
- By Amazon Customer on 06-23-24
By: William Yeske, and others
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Lessons in Liberty
- Thirty Rules for Living from Ten Extraordinary Americans
- By: Jeremy S. Adams
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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America is full of inspiring heroes. Greatness is not a chance—it is a choice. George Washington didn’t simply wake up as one of the greatest men in human history. His greatness was the sum of a lifetime of difficult and consequential choices. In Lessons in Liberty, Jeremy S. Adams distills inspiring advice from the lives of extraordinary Americans from our past.
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Surprising Facts
- By Olivia C Sipper on 07-23-24
By: Jeremy S. Adams
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Einstein in Time and Space
- A Life in 99 Particles
- By: Samuel Graydon
- Narrated by: George Reid
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Most of us would agree that Albert Einstein’s name is synonymous with “genius” and that his likeness is often used as a shorthand for all scientists, appearing everywhere from cartoons to textbooks. He has become more myth than man. That being the case, how best to capture his essence? In Einstein in Time and Space, talented young science journalist Samuel Graydon answers that question with an illuminating mosaic—99 intriguingly different particles that cumulatively reveal Einstein’s contradictory and multitudinous nature.
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easy listening Einstein
- By Video Drone on 03-07-25
By: Samuel Graydon
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Lincoln's Lieutenants
- The High Command of the Army of the Potomac
- By: Stephen W. Sears
- Narrated by: James Conlan
- Length: 31 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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The high command of the Army of the Potomac was a changeable, often dysfunctional band of brothers, going through the fires of war under seven commanding generals in three years, until Grant came east in 1864. The men in charge all too frequently appeared to be fighting against the administration in Washington instead of for it, increasingly cast as political pawns facing down a vindictive congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War.
By: Stephen W. Sears
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The Stowaway
- A Young Man's Extraordinary Adventure to Antarctica
- By: Laurie Gwen Shapiro
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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It was 1928: a time of illicit booze, of Gatsby and Babe Ruth, of freewheeling fun. The Great War was over, and American optimism was higher than the stock market. What better moment to launch an expedition to Antarctica, the planet's final frontier? The night before the expedition's flagship launched, Billy Gawronski - a skinny, first-generation New York City high schooler desperate to escape a dreary future in the family upholstery business - jumped into the Hudson River and snuck aboard. Could he get away with it?
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A Nice Little Story About A Nice Young Man...
- By Gillian on 01-23-18
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The Fighters
- By: C. J. Chivers
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 13 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Almost 2.5 million Americans have served in Afghanistan or Iraq since September 11, 2001. C.J. Chivers has reported from both fronts from the beginning, walking side by side with combatants for more than a dozen years. He describes the experience of war today as it is endured by those most at risk - the camaraderie and profound sense of purpose, alongside courage, frustration, and moral confusion mixed with technical precision. In these remote places where the reason for their presence is sometimes not clear, these young men kill or are killed, facing palpable and often constant threat of ambush or hidden bombs....
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a very human perspective...
- By dustin on 08-22-18
By: C. J. Chivers
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Getting Out of Saigon
- How a 27-Year-Old Banker Saved 113 Vietnamese Civilians
- By: Ralph White
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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In April 1975, Ralph White was asked by his boss to transfer from the Bangkok branch of the Chase Manhattan Bank to the Saigon Branch. He was tasked with closing the branch if and when it appeared that Saigon would fall to the North Vietnamese army and ensure the safety of the senior Vietnamese employees. But when he arrived, he realized the situation in Saigon was far more perilous than he had imagined. The senior staff members there urged him to evacuate the entire staff of the branch and their families, which was far more than he was authorized to do.
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Incredible! Should Be A Movie
- By Laurie on 07-27-23
By: Ralph White
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The Lighthouse of Stalingrad
- The Epic Siege at the Heart of the Greatest Battle of World War II
- By: Iain MacGregor
- Narrated by: Kris Dyer
- Length: 13 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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To the Soviet Union, the sacrifices that enabled the country to defeat Nazi Germany in World War II were sacrosanct. The foundation of the Soviets’ hard-won victory was laid during the battle for the city of Stalingrad, resting on the banks of the Volga River. To Russians, it is a pivotal landmark of their nation’s losses, with more than two million civilians and combatants either killed, wounded, or captured during the bitter fighting from September 1942 to February 1943. Both sides endured terrible conditions in brutal, relentless house-to-house fighting.
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Great story. New facts and analysis
- By N. Wirth on 12-19-22
By: Iain MacGregor
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The Berlin Wall
- August 13, 1961 - November 9, 1989
- By: Frederick Taylor
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 21 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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On the morning of August 13, 1961, the residents of East Berlin found themselves cut off from family, friends, and jobs in the West by a tangle of barbed wire that ruthlessly split a city of four million in two. Within days the barbed-wire entanglement would undergo an extraordinary metamorphosis: It became an imposing 103-mile-long wall guarded by 300 watchtowers. A physical manifestation of the struggle between Soviet Communism and American capitalism that stood for nearly 30 years, the Berlin Wall was the high-risk fault line between East and West.
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Informative
- By Corey on 05-18-25
By: Frederick Taylor
The chapter dealing with the Heller and McDonald rulings is especially good, showing how our legal understanding of one of our most important rights got grounded on solid footing once again, starting with the Late Great Justice Scalia's analysis.
I'm actually surprised the author didn't dive into events like the Battle of Athens, Tennessee. The "Battle" happened when a group of World War II veterans returned home to their town in 1946 and took up arms to overthrow a corrupt local government which had been rigging elections. (If you have a moment, Google it! It's one of many true stories of the Second Amendment in action.)
In a time and place when there is so much disinformation and nastiness in our debate about guns, gun culture, and the meaning of the Second Amendment, a book like this is a welcome dose of intelligent and insightful commentary.
The choice of narrator could have been better, however. I don't think Danny Campbell's reading was godawful, but it sounded rather hoarse and under-powered, and there were moments when he sounded like he was coming down with bronchitis. Most of the time, my attention was held just by the fascinating subject matter, but a few times the raspy narration was just distracting.
All the same, I definitely recommend this book. If you're even the least bit curious about guns, the Second Amendment, and some American history you never learned in high school, check this one out!
A Must-Read/Must-Listen
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A wonderful history
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One area I find useful: it touches on the innovations of John Browning. Includes the Browning Automatic Rifle (the BAR), which allowed soldiers to carry an automatic while moving forward ("walking fire").
History of Firearms Innovations
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worth the read
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Excellent and Informative
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Great history of firearms in America
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fascinating
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Great book
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Must read!
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Readers Voice
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