The Thomas Sowell Reader
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The Thomas Sowell Reader
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Narrated by:
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Robertson Dean
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By:
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Thomas Sowell
About this listen
These selections from the many writings of Thomas Sowell over a period of half a century cover social, economic, cultural, legal, educational, and political issues. The sources range from Dr. Sowell’s letters, books, newspaper columns, and articles in both scholarly journals and popular magazines. The topics range from latetalking children to tax cuts for the rich, baseball, race, war, the role of judges, medical care, and the rhetoric of politicians. These topics are dealt with by drawing sometimes on history, sometimes on economics, and sometimes on a sense of humor.
©2011 Thomas Sowell (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Thomas Sowell takes aim at a range of legal, social, racial, educational, and economic issues in this latest collection of his controversial, never boring, always thought-provoking essays. From "gun control myths" to "mealy mouth media" to "free lunch medicine," Sowell gets to the heart of the matters we all care about with his characteristically unsparing candor.
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He does it again.
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Barbarians Inside the Gates and Other Controversial Essays
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A collection of essays that discusses such issues as the media, immigration, the minimum wage, and multiculturalism.
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Mr. Sowell exposed the soul of America.
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Controversial Essays
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The Divine Logic
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Discrimination and Disparities
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Hard Pill To Swallow - I’m better for it
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Knowledge and Decisions
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 765
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This reissue of Thomas Sowell’s classic study of decision making, which includes a preface by the author, updates his seminal work in the context of The Vision of the Anointed. Sowell, one of America’s most celebrated public intellectuals, describes in concrete detail how knowledge is shared and disseminated throughout modern society. He warns that society suffers from an ever-widening gap between firsthand knowledge and decision making—a gap that threatens not only our economic and political efficiency but our very freedom.
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Social Justice Fallacies
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- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 62
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 50
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He does it again.
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By: Thomas Sowell
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Barbarians Inside the Gates and Other Controversial Essays
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Leon Nixon
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 88
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 81
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Story5 out of 5 stars 81
A collection of essays that discusses such issues as the media, immigration, the minimum wage, and multiculturalism.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Mr. Sowell exposed the soul of America.
- By ruth S. on 11-24-23
By: Thomas Sowell
-
Controversial Essays
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Leon Nixon
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 35
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 30
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 30
One of conservatism's most articulate voices dissects today's most important economic, racial, political, education, legal, and social issues, sharing his entertaining and thought-provoking insights on a wide range of contentious subjects.
-
5 out of 5 stars
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The Divine Logic
- By Yi Mon on 07-27-23
By: Thomas Sowell
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Inside American Education
- The Decline, The Deception, The Dogmas
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 317
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 289
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 288
An indictment of the American educational system criticizes the fact that the system has discarded the traditional goals of transmitting knowledge and fostering cognitive skills in favor of building self-esteem and promoting social harmony.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Must read if you want to understand the condition in America
- By Aaron on 12-21-21
By: Thomas Sowell
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The Vision of the Anointed
- Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Jim Seybert
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 503
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 440
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Story5 out of 5 stars 435
The Vision of the Anointed is a devastating critique of the mindset behind the failed social policies of the past thirty years. Thomas Sowell sees what has happened not as a series of isolated mistakes, but as a logical consequence of a vision whose defects have led to disasters in education, crime, family disintegration, and other social pathology. In this book, "politically correct" theory is repeatedly confronted with facts-and sharp contradictions between the two are explained in terms of a whole set of self-congratulatory assumptions held by political and intellectual elites.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An Absolute Masterpiece!
- By Brendan Martino on 04-04-22
By: Thomas Sowell
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Is Reality Optional?
- And Other Essays
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Leon Nixon
- Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 170
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 155
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Story5 out of 5 stars 154
Thomas Sowell challenges all the assumptions of contemporary liberalism on issues ranging from the economy to race to education in this collection of controversial essays, and captures his thoughts on politics, race, and common sense with a section at the end for thought-provoking quotes.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Amazing!
- By Anonymous User on 09-28-22
By: Thomas Sowell
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Migrations and Cultures
- A World View
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 16 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 246
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 192
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 195
Most commentators look at the issue of immigration from the viewpoint of immediate politics. In doing so, they focus on only a piece of the issue and lose touch with the larger picture. Now Thomas Sowell offers a sweeping historical and global look at a large number of migrations over a long period of time. Migrations and Cultures shows the persistence of cultural traits in particular racial and ethnic groups.
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5 out of 5 stars
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good but a dense read
- By Hi5Me on 03-27-18
By: Thomas Sowell
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Charter Schools and Their Enemies
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Brad Sanders
- Length: 4 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 718
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 629
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 625
A leading conservative intellectual defends charter schools against the teachers' unions, politicians, and liberal educators who threaten to dismantle their success.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Another winner from Thomas Sowell!
- By Wayne on 07-01-20
By: Thomas Sowell
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Basic Economics
- A Citizen's Guide to the Economy: Revised and Expanded Edition
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Brian Emerson
- Length: 18 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 209
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 172
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 171
Thomas Sowell has a different idea about how economics should be taught. With this groundbreaking introduction to economics, Sowell has thrown out the graphs, statistics, and jargon. Learning economics, he believes, should be relaxing - and even enjoyable. In this edition, Basic Economics has been revised and expanded to address the new concerns of the 21st century. It's focus has become more international, including the range of economic problems faced by foreign countries around the world.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A mind opening consideration of Economics.
- By Chad S. on 06-12-19
By: Thomas Sowell
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21 Lessons for the 21st Century
- By: Yuval Noah Harari
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 13,769
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 11,770
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 11,684
Yuval Noah Harari's 21 Lessons for the 21st Century is a probing and visionary investigation into today's most urgent issues as we move into the uncharted territory of the future. As technology advances faster than our understanding of it, hacking becomes a tactic of war, and the world feels more polarized than ever, Harari addresses the challenge of navigating life in the face of constant and disorienting change and raises the important questions we need to ask ourselves in order to survive.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Disappointing
- By Noah Lugeons on 09-11-18
-
Intellectuals and Race
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 5 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 2,285
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 2,029
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 2,011
Intellectuals and Race is a radical book in the original sense - one that goes to the root of the problem. The role of intellectuals in racial strife is explored in an international context that puts the American experience in a wholly new light. The book explores the incentives, the visions, and the rationales that drive intellectuals at the highest levels to conclusions that have often turned out to be counterproductive and even disastrous, not only for particular racial or ethnic groups but for societies as a whole.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Satisfying Indictment of the Intelligentsia
- By Andrew on 12-27-16
By: Thomas Sowell
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The Quest for Cosmic Justice
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 5 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 2,203
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,909
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 1,892
This book is about the great moral issues underlying many of the headline-making political controversies of our times. It is not a comforting book but a book about disturbing and dangerous trends. The Quest for Cosmic Justice shows how confused conceptions of justice end up promoting injustice, how confused conceptions of equality end up promoting inequality, and how the tyranny of social visions prevents many people from confronting the actual consequences of their own beliefs and policies.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
First released 20 years ago & now a classic!
- By Wayne on 11-05-18
By: Thomas Sowell
-
Dismantling America
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 1,821
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,560
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 1,549
These wide-ranging essays - on many individual political, economic, cultural, and legal issues - have as a recurring, underlying theme the decline of the values and institutions that have sustained and advanced American society for more than two centuries. This decline has been more than erosion. It has, in many cases, been a deliberate dismantling of American values and institutions by people convinced that their superior wisdom and virtue must override both the traditions of the country and the will of the people.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Nice Collection of Essays
- By Laura on 09-01-11
By: Thomas Sowell
-
Black Rednecks and White Liberals
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Hugh Mann
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 10,548
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 9,069
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 9,003
This explosive new audiobook challenges many of the long-held assumptions about blacks, about Jews, about Germans and Nazis, about slavery, and about education. Plainly written, powerfully reasoned, and backed with a startling array of documented facts, Black Rednecks and White Liberals takes on the trendy intellectuals of our times as well as historic interpreters of American life.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Great Book, Somewhat Misleading Title
- By ComputerBastard on 05-15-09
By: Thomas Sowell
-
Civil Rights
- Rhetoric or Reality?
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: James Bundy
- Length: 4 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 1,032
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 880
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 876
Thomas Sowell takes a tough, factual look at whether the civil rights movement has lived up to its hopes or its rhetoric. In the decades since the historic Supreme Court decision on desegregation, who has gained and who has lost? Which of the assumptions behind the civil rights revolution have stood the test of time, and which have proven to be mistaken or even catastrophic to those who were supposed to be helped?
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Thomas Sowell is the is the Vision of the US
- By DCS on 01-30-16
By: Thomas Sowell
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 622
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 622
In his giant New York Times best seller, America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It, Mark Steyn predicted collapse for the rest of the Western World. Now, he adds, America has caught up with Europe on the great rush to self-destruction. What will a world without American leadership look like? It won’t be pretty—not for you and not for your children. America’s decline won’t be gradual, like an aging Europe sipping espresso at a café until extinction. No, America’s decline will be a wrenching affair marked by violence and possibly secession.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Facts
- By Peter on 11-11-11
By: Mark Steyn
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America
- Imagine a World Without Her
- By: Dinesh D'Souza
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,100
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 987
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 979
Is America a source of pride, as Americans have long held, or shame, as Progressives allege? Beneath an innocent exterior, are our lives complicit in a national project of theft, expropriation, oppression, and murder? Or is America still the hope of the world? New York Times best-selling author Dinesh D'Souza says these questions are no mere academic exercise.
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5 out of 5 stars
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We can think for ourselves
- By score bags on 06-21-14
By: Dinesh D'Souza
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Coming Apart
- The State of White America, 1960–2010
- By: Charles Murray
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 775
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 632
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 627
In Coming Apart, Charles Murray explores the formation of American classes that are different in kind from anything we have ever known, focusing on whites as a way of driving home the fact that the trends he describes do not break along lines of race or ethnicity.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Brilliant & Flawed
- By Douglas C. Bates on 05-15-12
By: Charles Murray
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The Conservative Heart
- How to Build a Fairer, Happier, and More Prosperous America
- By: Arthur C. Brooks
- Narrated by: P. J. Ochlan
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 494
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 432
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 433
In The Conservative Heart, Arthur C. Brooks contends that after years of focusing on economic growth and traditional social values, it is time for a new kind of conservatism - one that helps the vulnerable without mortgaging our children's future. In Brooks' daring vision, this conservative movement fights poverty, promotes equal opportunity, celebrates earned success, and values spiritual enlightenment. It is an inclusive movement with a positive agenda to help people lead happier, more hopeful, and more satisfied lives.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Outstanding recitation of conservatism!
- By GLENNO on 08-06-15
By: Arthur C. Brooks
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Weapons of Mass Instruction
- A Schoolteacher's Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling
- By: John Taylor Gatto
- Narrated by: Michael Puttonen
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 839
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 729
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Story5 out of 5 stars 731
John Taylor Gatto's Weapons of Mass Instruction focuses on mechanisms of traditional education which cripple imagination, discourage critical thinking, and create a false view of learning as a byproduct of rote-memorization drills. Gatto's earlier book, Dumbing Us Down, introduced the now-famous expression of the title into the common vernacular. Weapons of Mass Instruction adds another chilling metaphor to the brief against conventional schooling.
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5 out of 5 stars
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I will never see school the same
- By Nicole on 05-21-15
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The Complacent Class
- The Self-Defeating Quest for the American Dream
- By: Tyler Cowen
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 299
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 254
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Story4 out of 5 stars 253
Since Alexis de Tocqueville, restlessness has been accepted as a signature American trait. Our willingness to move, take risks, and adapt to change have produced a dynamic economy and a tradition of innovation from Ben Franklin to Steve Jobs. The problem, according to legendary blogger, economist, and best-selling author Tyler Cowen, is that Americans today have broken from this tradition - we're working harder than ever to avoid change.
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5 out of 5 stars
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MUST READ
- By RJW on 05-06-17
By: Tyler Cowen
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Creating Freedom
- The Lottery of Birth, the Illusion of Consent, and the Fight for Our Future
- By: Raoul Martinez
- Narrated by: Steve West
- Length: 17 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 41
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 35
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Story5 out of 5 stars 35
A manifesto for deep and radical change, Creating Freedom explores the limits placed on freedom by human nature and society. It explodes myths, calling for a profound transformation in the way we think about democracy, equality, and our own identities.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The BEST book, I've listened to in a long time
- By G. Newton on 04-16-17
By: Raoul Martinez
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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
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 71
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 62
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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.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fantastic
- By Davena on 01-05-23
By: Matthew Stewart
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Discrimination and Disparities
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 5 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 4,065
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 3,536
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Story5 out of 5 stars 3,511
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.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Hard Pill To Swallow - I’m better for it
- By Charles on 01-14-19
By: Thomas Sowell
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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
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 98
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 65
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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.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Truth
- By Dominique Bessette on 01-23-17
By: Michael Medved
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Reason
- Why Liberals Will Win the Battle for America
- By: Robert B. Reich
- Narrated by: Robert B. Reich
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 171
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 63
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 62
From Robert B. Reich, passionate believer in American democracy and public servant, Reason is a guide to confronting and derailing what he sees as the mounting threat to American liberty, prosperity, and security posed by the radical conservatives, Radcons as he calls them.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Reason
- By Ron Green on 03-13-05
By: Robert B. Reich
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Equal Is Unfair
- America's Misguided Fight Against Income Inequality
- By: Don Watkins, Yaron Brook
- Narrated by: Jeff Cummings
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 620
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 566
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 567
We've all heard that the American Dream is vanishing, and that the cause is rising income inequality. The rich are getting richer by rigging the system in their favor, leaving the rest of us to struggle just to keep our heads above water. To save the American Dream, we're told that we need to fight inequality through tax hikes, wealth redistribution schemes, and a far higher minimum wage.
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3 out of 5 stars
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While I agree with most of this book,...
- By Wayne on 12-30-16