Smashing the Liquor Machine
A Global History of Prohibition
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Smashing the Liquor Machine
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Narrated by:
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Tom Perkins
About this listen
When most people think of the prohibition era, they think of speakeasies, rum runners, and backwoods fundamentalists railing about the ills of strong drink. In other words, in the popular imagination, it is a peculiarly American history.
Yet, as Mark Lawrence Schrad shows in Smashing the Liquor Machine, the conventional scholarship on prohibition is extremely misleading for a simple reason: American prohibition was just one piece of a global phenomenon. Schrad's pathbreaking history of prohibition looks at the anti-alcohol movement around the globe through the experiences of pro-temperance leaders like Vladimir Lenin, Leo Tolstoy, Thomás Masaryk, Kemal Atatürk, Mahatma Gandhi, and anti-colonial activists across Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Schrad argues that temperance wasn't "American exceptionalism" at all, but rather one of the most broad-based and successful transnational social movements of the modern era.
Unlike many traditional "dry" histories, Smashing the Liquor Machine gives voice to minority and subaltern figures who resisted the global liquor industry, and further highlights that the impulses that led to the temperance movement were far more progressive and variegated than Americans have been led to believe.
©2021 Oxford University Press (P)2022 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 7,682
For much of his life, historian Howard Zinn chronicled American history from the bottom up, throwing out the official version taught in schools - with its emphasis on great men in high places - to focus on the street, the home, and the workplace. Known for its lively, clear prose as well as its scholarly research, A People's History of the United States is the only volume to tell America's story from the point of view of - and in the words of - America's women, factory workers, African-Americans, Native Americans, the working poor, and immigrant laborers.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Amateur hour in the production booth
- By Thomas on 11-09-10
By: Howard Zinn
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The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution: 1763-1789
- By: Robert Middlekauff
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 26 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,296
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,098
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,093
The first book to appear in the illustrious Oxford History of the United States, this critically-acclaimed volume - a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize - offers an unsurpassed history of the Revolutionary War and the birth of the American republic.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Strong History Rich With Behind The Scenes Details
- By John on 10-06-11
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Vodka Politics
- Alcohol, Autocracy, and the Secret History of the Russian State
- By: Mark Lawrence Schrad
- Narrated by: Noah Michael Levine
- Length: 18 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 87
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 73
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 74
Russia is famous for its vodka, and its culture of extreme intoxication. But just as vodka is central to the lives of many Russians, it is also central to understanding Russian history and politics. In Vodka Politics, Mark Lawrence Schrad argues that debilitating societal alcoholism is not hard-wired into Russians' genetic code, but rather their autocratic political system, which has long wielded vodka as a tool of statecraft. Through a series of historical investigations stretching from Ivan the Terrible through Vladimir Putin, Vodka Politics presents the secret history of the Russian state itself.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Look Natasha! Moose and Squirrel are drunk!
- By The Crunge on 09-07-16
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American Nations
- A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America
- By: Colin Woodard
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 12 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,497
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,031
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,028
North America was settled by people with distinct religious, political, and ethnographic characteristics, creating regional cultures that have been at odds with one another ever since. Subsequent immigrants didn't confront or assimilate into an "American" or "Canadian" culture, but rather into one of the 11 distinct regional ones that spread over the continent each staking out mutually exclusive territory. In American Nations, Colin Woodard leads us on a journey through the history of our fractured continent....
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5 out of 5 stars
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One of a Kind Masterpiece
- By Theo Horesh on 02-28-13
By: Colin Woodard
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Why Liberals Win the Culture Wars (Even When They Lose Elections)
- The Battles That Define America from Jefferson's Heresies to Gay Marriage
- By: Stephen Prothero
- Narrated by: Tristan Morris
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 56
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 49
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Story4 out of 5 stars 49
Though they may seem to be dividing the country irreparably, today's heated cultural and political battles between right and left, progressives and the Tea Party, religious and secular are far from unprecedented. In this engaging and important work, Stephen Prothero reframes the current debate, viewing it as the latest in a number of flashpoints that have shaped our national identity.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Resistance to Change
- By Joanne on 04-07-16
By: Stephen Prothero
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Machine Made
- Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern American Politics
- By: Terry Golway
- Narrated by: Adam Grupper
- Length: 13 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 73
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 70
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Story4 out of 5 stars 68
For decades, history has considered Tammany Hall, New York's famous political machine, shorthand for the worst of urban politics: graft, crime, and patronage personified by notoriously corrupt characters. Infamous crooks like William "Boss" Tweed dominate traditional histories of Tammany, distorting our understanding of a critical chapter of American political history. In Machine Made, historian and New York City journalist Terry Golway convincingly dismantles these stereotypes.
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2 out of 5 stars
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A missed opportunity
- By Kathy on 05-27-15
By: Terry Golway
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The Real Lincoln
- A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War
- By: Thomas J. Dilorenzo
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 525
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 466
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 466
Most Americans consider Abraham Lincoln to be the greatest president in history. His legend as the Great Emancipator has grown to mythic proportions as hundreds of books, a national holiday, and a monument in Washington, D.C., extol his heroism and martyrdom. But what if most everything you knew about Lincoln were false? What if, instead of an American hero who sought to free the slaves, Lincoln were in fact a calculating politician who waged the bloodiest war in American history in order to build an empire that rivaled Great Britain's?
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1 out of 5 stars
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OpEd Disguised as History
- By John McDowell on 10-30-18
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A Young People's History of the United States
- By: Rebecca Stefoff, Howard Zinn
- Narrated by: Jeff Zinn
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 247
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 200
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 199
Beginning with a look at Christopher Columbus’s arrival through the eyes of the Arawak Indians, then leading the reader through the struggles for workers’ rights, women’s rights, and civil rights during the 19th and 20th centuries, and ending with the current protests against continued American imperialism, Zinn in the volumes of A Young People’s History of the United States presents a radical new way of understanding America’s history. In so doing, he reminds listeners that America’s true greatness is shaped by our dissident voices, not our military generals.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An Inclusive History for Young People
- By Susie on 03-17-14
By: Rebecca Stefoff, and others
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The End of the Myth
- From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America
- By: Greg Grandin
- Narrated by: Eric Pollins
- Length: 13 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 272
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 227
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 226
From a Pulitzer Prize finalist, a new and eye-opening interpretation of the meaning of the frontier, from early westward expansion to Trump’s border wall.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The chickens are coming home to roost
- By MJ on 04-21-19
By: Greg Grandin
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The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History
- By: Thomas E. Woods Jr.
- Narrated by: Barrett Whitener
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,529
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,119
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,113
Everything, well, almost everything, you know about American history is wrong because most textbooks and popular history books are written by left-wing academic historians who treat their biases as fact. But fear not; Professor Thomas Woods refutes the popular myths in The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Highly recommended! Not for the faint of heart!
- By RAC on 12-12-05
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A Patriot’s History of the United States, Updated Edition
- From Columbus's Great Discovery to America's Age of Entitlement
- By: Larry Schweikart, Michael Allen
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 55 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 683
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 585
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 585
Over the past decade, A Patriot's History of the United States has become the definitive conservative history of our country, correcting the biases of historians and other intellectuals who downplay the greatness of America's patriots. Professors Schweikart and Allen have now revised, updated, and expanded their book, which covers America's long history with an appreciation for the values that made this nation uniquely successful.
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2 out of 5 stars
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A Fox News Version of American History
- By Stephen on 05-16-21
By: Larry Schweikart, and others
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American Heritage History of the United States
- By: Douglas Brinkley
- Narrated by: Eric Martin
- Length: 23 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 52
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 40
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Story5 out of 5 stars 40
Douglas Brinkley takes us on the incredible journey of the United States - a nation formed from a vast countryside on whose fringes 13 small British colonies fought for their freedom, then established a democratic nation that spanned the continent and went on to become a world power. This book will be treasured by anyone interested in the story of America.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Highly recommended!
- By M. Hu on 08-04-17
By: Douglas Brinkley
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Black Reconstruction in America
- By: W. E. B. Du Bois, David Levering Lewis
- Narrated by: Mirron Willis
- Length: 37 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 358
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 300
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Story5 out of 5 stars 297
This pioneering work was the first full-length study of the role black Americans played in the crucial period after the Civil War, when the slaves had been freed and the attempt was made to reconstruct American society. Hailed at the time, Black Reconstruction in America has justly been called a classic.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The textbook you should have had in high school.
- By Saleh on 05-06-18
By: W. E. B. Du Bois, and others
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America Aflame
- How the Civil War Created a Nation
- By: David Goldfield
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 27 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 53
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 46
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 44
In this spellbinding new history, David Goldfield offers the first major new interpretation of the Civil War era since James M. McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom. Where past scholars have interpreted the war as a triumph of freedom, Goldfield sees it as America's greatest failure: the result of a breakdown caused by the infusion of evangelical religion into the public sphere.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great and indepth
- By Kindle Customer on 06-02-14
By: David Goldfield
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Stamped from the Beginning
- The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
- By: Ibram X. Kendi
- Narrated by: Christopher Dontrell Piper
- Length: 19 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 4,097
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,581
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Story5 out of 5 stars 3,549
Some Americans cling desperately to the myth that we are living in a post-racial society, that the election of the first Black president spelled the doom of racism. In fact, racist thought is alive and well in America - more sophisticated and more insidious than ever. And as award-winning historian Ibram X. Kendi argues in Stamped from the Beginning, if we have any hope of grappling with this stark reality, we must first understand how racist ideas were developed, disseminated, and enshrined in American society.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Fabulous book, poor reader
- By EBMason on 11-15-17
By: Ibram X. Kendi
What listeners say about Smashing the Liquor Machine
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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
- L. King
- 04-05-23
I’d love to say it takes a hatchet to temperance myths…
But the book is actually more of a scalpel that carefully, methodically, and completely disassembles those myths then just as carefully assembles a more accurate narrative. And that narrative is a revelation—and not just for people interested in history. I strongly recommend this book to people renegotiating their own relationships with alcohol, not because it pushes sobriety ( it absolutely doesn’t), but because it sheds so much light on how powerful commercial and government interests engineer addiction for profit. And on how some of the greatest men and women in history have fought back.
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