Politics & Economy audiobooks

Saving America-Saving the World

By: Helen Caldicott, M.D.

Narrated by: Michael Toms

Length: 57 minutes

Abridged: No

An articulate firebrand and one of the world's leading advocates of nuclear disarmament, environmentalism and citizen action delivers a scathing wake-up call about abuses of power in American government, media and industry, and the urgent need to truly care for the planet and each other. Read more

Looking Deeply

By: Alice Walker

Narrated by: Justine Willis Toms & Michael Toms

Length: 1 hour

Abridged: No

This is a thought-provoking interview with a frank and powerful thinker and writer. Alice Walker reminds us of the importance of invisible forces and connections between worlds that science has not yet acknowledged. She tells how her own life is informed by a host of “ancestors” and characters from her own writing, and how this provides her with... Read more

The Duel

By: John Lukacs

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 9 hours 39 minutes

Abridged: No

One is poised on the edge of victory, the other threatened by invasion and defeat yet holding on, his own life in the balance and also that of the free world. 
 
In his reconstruction of the 80 days from May 10 to July 31, 1940, the author shows just how close England came to losing the war. He paints Churchill as resolute, threatened from... Read more

Mikhail Gorbachev's Resignation

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 13 minutes

Abridged: No

Reaction from Moscow, and a conversation with former United States National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski. Read more

Peter the Great

By: Robert K. Massie & John E. Dowling

Narrated by: Frederick Davidson

Length: 43 hours 35 minutes

Abridged: No

This superbly told story brings to life one of the most remarkable rulers––and men––in all of history and conveys the drama of his life and world. The Russia of Peter’s birth was very different from the Russia his energy, genius, and ruthlessness shaped. Crowned co-Tsar as a child of ten, after witnessing bloody uprisings in the streets of... Read more

Warrior for Peace

By: Danaan Parry

Narrated by: Michael Toms

Length: 57 minutes

Abridged: No

This is an extraordinary interview on conflict and peace. Parry tells deeply moving stories from his own life - from the streets of Belfast, Northern Ireland to his own neighborhood laundromat. They are stories of anger, truth and healing. Read more

Interview with diplomat George Kennan

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 16 minutes

Abridged: No

Robert MacNeil interviews American diplomat George Kennan about the failed coup in the Soviet Union to overthrow Gorbachev. Read more

Retrospective on the Gulf

By: Neal Conan

Narrated by: Neal Conan

Length: 58 minutes

Abridged: No

It was phenomenally successful in the air, strikingly decisive on the ground—and suddenly the war in the Persian Gulf was over, with an overwhelming victory for the allied forces. But what really happened? Why did the air war work so well? Why did the massive, allied casualties many predicted for the ground phase never materialize? Why was it... Read more

The Prize - Abridged

By: Daniel Yergin

Narrated by: Bob Jamieson

Length: 2 hours 52 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and hailed as “the best history of oil ever written” by Business Week, Daniel Yergin’s “spellbinding…irresistible” (The New York Times) account of the global pursuit of oil, money, and power addresses the ongoing energy crisis.

Now with an epilogue that speaks directly to the current energy crisis, The Prize recounts... Read more

Singer in the Real World

By: Holly Near

Narrated by: Michael Toms

Length: 56 minutes

Abridged: No

"What has to take place for the light to come into your eye?" asks Holly Near. Not only a talented singer and songwriter, she demonstrates in this lively interview that she is also a passionate, humorous and articulate spokesperson for peace and sanity in the world. Read more

Money Sense

By: Joe Dominguez & Vicki Robin

Narrated by: Michael Toms

Length: 56 minutes

Abridged: No

Have you mastered money in your life, or does it master you? Dominguez and Robin describe their own philosophy and techniques for knowing "how much is enough," for living below your means and not needing to work for money. They challenge us in new ways to re-examine our relationship to money and things financial. Read more

Money and Spirit

By: Jacob Needleman, Ph.D.

Narrated by: Michael Toms

Length: 56 minutes

Abridged: No

Money has become for our generation what sex was for the earlier generations," says philosopher Jacob Needleman, "a force that is at the back of almost everything people do, but which we're not yet able to face without hypocrisy." In this refreshingly candid and insightful interview, Needleman discusses the meaning of money and its place in the... Read more

The Next Century

By: David Halberstam

Narrated by: E.G. Marshall

Length: 4 hours 17 minutes

Abridged: No

What can we learn from the events of the 20th century? David Halberstam set out to answer that question in this perceptive and eye-opening work which examines the past in order to determine the future. From the rise of the Japanese economy to the startling changes that reshaped the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, Halberstam argues that the... Read more

An Alternative Future

By: Hazel Henderson

Narrated by: Michael Toms

Length: 57 minutes

Abridged: No

In this radical, visionary look at our possibilities for a sustainable future, Hazel Henderson discusses the “globalization” of human affairs, and proposes new ways of evaluating and improving a city or nation’s quality of life. We need an alternative, she explains, to such indicators as the GNP, which values war weapons but not environmental... Read more

Interview with Gerald Ford

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 10 minutes

Abridged: No

An interview with former President Gerald Ford on the prospect of the United States going to war in the Persian Gulf, following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. Read more

Where Riches Lie

By: Paul Hwoschinsky

Narrated by: Michael Toms

Length: 55 minutes

Abridged: No

Money and wealth are not the same thing, asserts Hwoschinsky, a venture capitalist, wilderness photographer and author. By using a "non-financial balance sheet" to identify the assets which, more than money ever could, indicate our aliveness and true wealth--our health, relationships, education, vision and creativity--we can begin to integrate... Read more

The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Vol. 1

By: William Manchester

Narrated by: Frederick Davidson

Length: 41 hours 22 minutes

Abridged: No

Winston Churchill is perhaps the most important political figure of the twentieth century.His great oratory and leadership during the Second World War were only part of his huge breadth of experience and achievement. Studying his life is a fascinating way to imbibe the history of his era and gain insight into key events that have shaped our... Read more

Songs of the Doomed - Abridged

By: Hunter S. Thompson

Narrated by: Hunter S. Thompson

Length: 3 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: Yes

The third volume of the legendary “Gonzo Papers” recalls high and hideous moments in Hunter S. Thompson’s life and career—featuring a new introduction from comedian Tim Heidecker.

With Thompson’s trademark insight and passion about the state of American politics and culture, Songs of the Doomed charts the long, strange trip from Kennedy to... Read more

Don’T Worry--Be Happy

By: Marsha Sinetar

Narrated by: Michael Toms

Length: 57 minutes

Abridged: No

Using the Hansel and Gretel myth as a metaphor for life, psychologist and writer Sinetar speaks to those who are attempting to live their deepest calling in the midst of a seductive world. She emphasizes the power of a positive view without being pollyannish, and stresses how optimism is essential for the creative process to unfold. Read more

What I Saw at the Revolution - Abridged

By: Peggy Noonan

Narrated by: Peggy Noonan

Length: 3 hours 3 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Ronald Reagan carried a conservative vision of America to the White House, where his administration gave it life. Peggy Noonan followed Reagan to Washington as his speechwriter— and gave his vision voice. As speech writer for George Bush during his Presidential campaign, Noonan dispelled her candidate's "wimpy" image and replaced it... Read more

Interview with Nelson Mandela

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 22 minutes

Abridged: No

A 1990 interview with Nelson after his release from prison. Originally broadcast on the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour on February 16, 1990. Read more

The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Vol. 2

By: William Manchester & Eric Garner

Narrated by: Richard Brown

Length: 36 hours 23 minutes

Abridged: No

This second volume in William Manchester’s three-volume biography of Winston Churchill challenges the assumption that Churchill’s finest hour was as a wartime leader. During the years 1932–1940, he was tested as few men are. Pursued by creditors (at one point he had to put up his home for sale), he remained solvent only by writing an... Read more

Harry S. Truman

By: Robert H. Ferrell

Narrated by: Jeff Riggenbach

Length: 21 hours 38 minutes

Abridged: No

Few US presidents have captured the imagination of the American people as has Harry S. Truman. In this biography, Robert H. Ferrell, widely regarded as an authority on the thirty-third president, challenges the popular characterization of Truman as a man who rarely sought the offices he received, revealing instead a man who—with modesty,... Read more

Interview with Paul Nitze

By: PBS NewsHour

Narrated by: PBS NewsHour

Length: 16 minutes

Abridged: No

Jim Lehrer interviews American diplomat Paul Nitze on his views of the Soviet Union. Read more