Experience our world: as it was, as it is, as it might become with these audiobooks about history, the arts, culture, education, and politics. Don't miss Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel, or Fresh Air with Terry Gross: Writers, or Gwen Ifill's The Breakthrough.
An incandescent group portrait of the mid-century artists and thinkers whose lives, loves, collaborations, and passions were forged against the wartime destruction and postwar rebirth of Paris. Learn More
Roseann Lake's Leftover in China employs colorful anecdotes, hundreds of interviews, and rigorous historical and demographic research to show how the "leftovers" are the ultimate linchpin to China’s future. Learn More
by Lee C. Bollinger and Geoffrey R. Stone; read by Malcolm Hillgartner
A timely defense of affirmative action policies that offers a more nuanced understanding of how centuries of invidious racism, discrimination, and segregation in the United States led to and justifies such policies from both a moral and constitutional perspective. Learn More
This study examines the key elements of Lenin's life and career, the consolidation of his ideas into the doctrines of "Leninism," the influence of Leninism in promoting revolutionary movements around the globe, and the currently disputed issue of whether his ideas still have any relevance today. Learn More
by Pasi Sahlberg & Wiliam Doyles; read by Randye Kaye
In Let the Children Play, Pasi Sahlberg, Finnish educator and scholar, and Fulbright Scholar William Doyle make the case for helping schools and children thrive by unleashing the power of play and giving more physical and intellectual play to all schoolchildren. Learn More
With a crisis of representation hobbling democracies across the globe, Let the People Rule offers important new ideas about the crucial role the referendum can play in the future of government. Learn More
The colorful, dramatic, and surprising story of four crucial months in Teddy Roosevelt's 1912 campaign that fundamentally altered the American political process. Learn More
by Jacob S. Hacker & Paul Pierson; read by Peter Berkrot
A groundbreaking account of the dangerous marriage of plutocratic economic priorities and right-wing populist appeals—and how it threatens the pillars of American democracy. Learn More
George C. Daughan's magnificently detailed account of the battle of Lexington and Concord will challenge the prevailing narrative of the American War of Independence. Authoritative and immersive, Lexington and Concord offers new understanding of a battle that became a template for colonial uprising in later centuries. Learn More
by Anne Higonnet; read by Elisabeth Lagelee and Anne Higonnet
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This is a story for our time: of a revolution that demanded universal human rights, of self-creation, of women empowering each other, and of transcendent glamor. Learn More
Library of Small Catastrophes, Alison Rollins's ambitious debut collection, interrogates the body and nation as storehouses of countless tragedies. Learn More
Franken trains his subversive wit directly on the contemporary political scene, earning him the nickname the "master of political humor" (Washington Post) . Learn More
by Kwame Anthony Appiah; read by Kwame Anthony Appiah
From the bestselling author of Cosmopolitanism comes this revealing exploration of how the collective identities that shape our polarized world are riddled with contradiction. Learn More
In this unique book, John Janovy Jr., one of the world's preeminent experts on parasites, reveals what can humans learn from the most reviled yet misunderstood animals on Earth: lice, tapeworms, flukes, and maggots that can eat a lizard from the inside, and how these lessons help us negotiate our own complicated world. Whether we're learning to adapt to adverse conditions, accept our own limitations, or process new information in an ever-changing landscape—we can be sure a parasite did it first. Learn More
This book tells the complete story of the quest to answer one of the most tantalizing questions in astronomy. But it is more than a history. Life on Mars explains what we need to know before we go. It also shows how Mars mania has obscured our vision since we first turned our sights on the planet and encourages a healthy skepticism toward the media hype surrounding Mars as humanity prepares to venture forth. Learn More
