Coming Apart
The State of White America, 1960–2010
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $23.36
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Traber Burns
-
By:
-
Charles Murray
About this listen
From the best-selling author of Losing Ground and The Bell Curve, this startling long-lens view shows how America is coming apart at the seams that have historically joined our social classes.
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.
Drawing on five decades of statistics and research, Coming Apart demonstrates that a new upper class and a new lower class have diverged so far in core behaviors and values that they barely recognize their underlying American kinship—a divergence that has nothing to do with income inequality and that has grown during good economic times and bad.
The top and bottom of white America increasingly live in different cultures, Murray argues, with the powerful upper class living in enclaves surrounded by their own kind, ignorant about life in mainstream America, and the lower class suffering from erosions of family and community life that strike at the heart of the pursuit of happiness. This divergence puts the success of the American project at risk.
The evidence in Coming Apart is about white America. Its message is about all of America.
Charles Murray is the W. H. Brady Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. He first came to national attention in 1984 with Losing Ground. He received a bachelor’s degree in history from Harvard and a Ph.D. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He lives with his wife in Burkittsville, Maryland.
Download the accompanying reference guide.©2012 Cox and Murray, Inc. (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Facing Reality
- Two Truths About Race in America
- By: Charles Murray
- Narrated by: Robert Rivington
- Length: 3 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The charges of white privilege and systemic racism that are tearing the country apart fIoat free of reality. Two known facts, long since documented beyond reasonable doubt, need to be brought into the open and incorporated into the way we think about public policy: American Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians have different violent crime rates and different means and distributions of cognitive ability.
-
-
Thank you for writing this
- By jonathan bonnett on 06-20-21
By: Charles Murray
-
Human Diversity
- The Biology of Gender, Race, and Class
- By: Charles Murray
- Narrated by: David Baker
- Length: 14 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The thesis of Human Diversity is that advances in genetics and neuroscience are overthrowing an intellectual orthodoxy that has ruled the social sciences for decades. The core of the orthodoxy consists of three dogmas: Gender is a social construct. Race is a social construct. Class is a function of privilege. The problem is that all three dogmas are half-truths. They have stifled progress in understanding the rich texture that biology adds to our understanding of the social, political, and economic worlds we live in. It is not a story to be feared. But it is a story that needs telling.
-
-
Purchase the Kindle version not the audio book
- By Wayne on 02-09-20
By: Charles Murray
-
The War on the West
- By: Douglas Murray
- Narrated by: Douglas Murray
- Length: 12 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The War on the West, Douglas Murray shows how many well-meaning people have been fooled by hypocritical and inconsistent anti-West rhetoric. After all, if we must discard the ideas of Kant, Hume, and Mill for their opinions on race, shouldn’t we discard Marx, whose work is peppered with racial slurs and anti-Semitism? Embers of racism remain to be stamped out in America, but what about the raging racist inferno in the Middle East and Asia?
-
-
Every Human (seriously, everyone) Read This!
- By aaron on 04-27-22
By: Douglas Murray
-
The Curmudgeon's Guide to Getting Ahead
- Dos and Don'ts of Right Behavior, Tough Thinking, Clear Writing, and Living a Good Life
- By: Charles Murray
- Narrated by: Charles Murray
- Length: 3 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Best-selling social historian Charles Murray has written a delightfully fussy - and entertaining - book on the hidden rules of the road in the workplace - and in life - from the standpoint of an admonishing, but encouraging, workplace grouch and taskmaster. Why the curmudgeon? The fact is that most older, more senior people in the workplace are closet curmudgeons. In today's politically correct world, they may hide their displeasure over your misuse of grammar or your overly familiar use of their first name without an express invitation. But don't be fooled by their pleasant demeanor....
-
-
Good Book: From one curmudgeon to another
- By DaWoolf on 05-22-14
By: Charles Murray
-
Losing Ground
- American Social Policy, 1950 - 1980
- By: Charles Murray
- Narrated by: Robert Morris
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beginning in the 1950s, America entered a period of unprecedented social reform. This remarkable book demonstrates how the social programs of the 1960s and ’70s had the unintended and perverse effect of slowing and even reversing earlier progress in reducing poverty, crime, ignorance, and discrimination. Using widely understood and accepted data, it conclusively demonstrates that the amalgam of reforms from 1965 to 1970 actually made matters worse.
-
-
A great book ruined by a terrible recording
- By Michael on 04-05-13
By: Charles Murray
-
By the People
- Rebuilding Liberty Without Permission
- By: Charles Murray
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
- Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
American freedom is being gutted. Whether we are trying to run a business, practice a vocation, raise our families, cooperate with our neighbors, or follow our religious beliefs, we run afoul of the government—not because we are doing anything wrong but because the government has decided it knows better. When we object, that government can and does tell us, “Try to fight this, and we’ll ruin you.”
-
-
Finally, some possible solutions
- By Amazon Customer on 03-17-16
By: Charles Murray
-
Facing Reality
- Two Truths About Race in America
- By: Charles Murray
- Narrated by: Robert Rivington
- Length: 3 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The charges of white privilege and systemic racism that are tearing the country apart fIoat free of reality. Two known facts, long since documented beyond reasonable doubt, need to be brought into the open and incorporated into the way we think about public policy: American Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians have different violent crime rates and different means and distributions of cognitive ability.
-
-
Thank you for writing this
- By jonathan bonnett on 06-20-21
By: Charles Murray
-
Human Diversity
- The Biology of Gender, Race, and Class
- By: Charles Murray
- Narrated by: David Baker
- Length: 14 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The thesis of Human Diversity is that advances in genetics and neuroscience are overthrowing an intellectual orthodoxy that has ruled the social sciences for decades. The core of the orthodoxy consists of three dogmas: Gender is a social construct. Race is a social construct. Class is a function of privilege. The problem is that all three dogmas are half-truths. They have stifled progress in understanding the rich texture that biology adds to our understanding of the social, political, and economic worlds we live in. It is not a story to be feared. But it is a story that needs telling.
-
-
Purchase the Kindle version not the audio book
- By Wayne on 02-09-20
By: Charles Murray
-
The War on the West
- By: Douglas Murray
- Narrated by: Douglas Murray
- Length: 12 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The War on the West, Douglas Murray shows how many well-meaning people have been fooled by hypocritical and inconsistent anti-West rhetoric. After all, if we must discard the ideas of Kant, Hume, and Mill for their opinions on race, shouldn’t we discard Marx, whose work is peppered with racial slurs and anti-Semitism? Embers of racism remain to be stamped out in America, but what about the raging racist inferno in the Middle East and Asia?
-
-
Every Human (seriously, everyone) Read This!
- By aaron on 04-27-22
By: Douglas Murray
-
The Curmudgeon's Guide to Getting Ahead
- Dos and Don'ts of Right Behavior, Tough Thinking, Clear Writing, and Living a Good Life
- By: Charles Murray
- Narrated by: Charles Murray
- Length: 3 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Best-selling social historian Charles Murray has written a delightfully fussy - and entertaining - book on the hidden rules of the road in the workplace - and in life - from the standpoint of an admonishing, but encouraging, workplace grouch and taskmaster. Why the curmudgeon? The fact is that most older, more senior people in the workplace are closet curmudgeons. In today's politically correct world, they may hide their displeasure over your misuse of grammar or your overly familiar use of their first name without an express invitation. But don't be fooled by their pleasant demeanor....
-
-
Good Book: From one curmudgeon to another
- By DaWoolf on 05-22-14
By: Charles Murray
-
Losing Ground
- American Social Policy, 1950 - 1980
- By: Charles Murray
- Narrated by: Robert Morris
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beginning in the 1950s, America entered a period of unprecedented social reform. This remarkable book demonstrates how the social programs of the 1960s and ’70s had the unintended and perverse effect of slowing and even reversing earlier progress in reducing poverty, crime, ignorance, and discrimination. Using widely understood and accepted data, it conclusively demonstrates that the amalgam of reforms from 1965 to 1970 actually made matters worse.
-
-
A great book ruined by a terrible recording
- By Michael on 04-05-13
By: Charles Murray
-
By the People
- Rebuilding Liberty Without Permission
- By: Charles Murray
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
- Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
American freedom is being gutted. Whether we are trying to run a business, practice a vocation, raise our families, cooperate with our neighbors, or follow our religious beliefs, we run afoul of the government—not because we are doing anything wrong but because the government has decided it knows better. When we object, that government can and does tell us, “Try to fight this, and we’ll ruin you.”
-
-
Finally, some possible solutions
- By Amazon Customer on 03-17-16
By: Charles Murray
-
Social Justice Fallacies
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Brad Sanders
- Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The quest for social justice is a powerful crusade of our time, with an appeal to many different people, for many different reasons. But those who use the same words do not always present the same meanings. Clarifying those meanings is the first step toward finding out what we agree on and disagree on. From there, it is largely a question of what the facts are. Social Justice Fallacies reveals how many things that are thought to be true simply cannot stand up to documented facts, which are often the opposite of what is widely believed.
-
-
Timely book by 93 year old Thomas Sowell
- By Wayne on 09-27-23
By: Thomas Sowell
-
The Madness of Crowds
- Gender, Race and Identity
- By: Douglas Murray
- Narrated by: Douglas Murray
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Madness of Crowds Douglas Murray investigates the dangers of ‘woke’ culture and the rise of identity politics. In lively, razor-sharp prose he examines the most controversial issues of our moment: sexuality, gender, technology and race, with interludes on the Marxist foundations of ‘wokeness’, the impact of tech and how, in an increasingly online culture, we must relearn the ability to forgive.
-
-
An Urgent Read for Our Over-woke Times
- By Justin J. Norman on 09-26-19
By: Douglas Murray
-
Bowling Alone: Revised and Updated
- The Collapse and Revival of American Community
- By: Robert D. Putnam
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 18 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing on vast new data that reveal Americans' changing behavior, Putnam shows how we have become increasingly disconnected from one another and how social structures - whether they be PTA, church, or political parties - have disintegrated. Until the publication of this groundbreaking work, no one had so deftly diagnosed the harm that these broken bonds have wreaked on our physical and civic health, nor had anyone exalted their fundamental power in creating a society that is happy, healthy, and safe.
-
-
Long Long book
- By William S. Gross on 11-13-17
By: Robert D. Putnam
-
Bobos in Paradise
- The New Upper Class and How They Got There
- By: David Brooks
- Narrated by: David Brooks
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It used to be pretty easy to distinguish between the bourgeois world of capitalism and the bohemian counterculture. The bourgeois worked for corporations, wore gray, and went to church. The bohemians were artists and intellectuals. Bohemians championed the values of the liberated 1960s; the bourgeois were the enterprising yuppies of the 1980s.
-
-
A magazine article stretched to book length
- By Brian on 08-17-03
By: David Brooks
-
The Strange Death of Europe
- Immigration, Identity, Islam
- By: Douglas Murray
- Narrated by: Robert Davies
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Strange Death of Europe is a highly personal account of a continent and culture caught in the act of suicide. Declining birth rates, mass immigration, and cultivated self-distrust and self-hatred have come together to make Europeans unable to argue for themselves and incapable of resisting their own comprehensive alteration as a society and an eventual end.
-
-
Fear-mongering
- By Kat Cat on 01-22-19
By: Douglas Murray
-
When Race Trumps Merit
- How the Pursuit of Equity Sacrifices Excellence, Destroys Beauty, and Threatens Lives
- By: Heather Mac Donald
- Narrated by: Olivia Lewis
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Does your workplace have too few Black people in top jobs? It’s racist. Does the advanced math and science high school in your city have too many Asians? It’s racist. Does your local museum employ too many White women? It’s racist, too. After the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, prestigious American institutions, from the medical profession to the fine arts, pleaded guilty to “systemic racism”.
-
-
People need to read/listen to this book
- By Casey on 04-20-23
-
The Age of Entitlement
- America Since the Sixties
- By: Christopher Caldwell
- Narrated by: Christopher Caldwell
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A major American intellectual makes the historical case that the reforms of the 1960s, reforms intended to make the nation more just and humane, instead left many Americans feeling alienated, despised, misled - and ready to put an adventurer in the White House. Christopher Caldwell has spent years studying the liberal uprising of the 1960s and its unforeseen consequences. Even the reforms that Americans love best have come with costs that are staggeringly high - in wealth, freedom, and social stability - and that have been spread unevenly among classes and generations.
-
-
Do laudable ends justify unconstitutional means?
- By LBJ on 02-08-20
-
The Thomas Sowell Reader
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 14 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
The Best Book By The Smartest Guy in the Room
- By Dave on 10-20-11
By: Thomas Sowell
-
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
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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....
-
-
One of a Kind Masterpiece
- By Theo Horesh on 02-28-13
By: Colin Woodard
-
Barbarians Inside the Gates and Other Controversial Essays
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Leon Nixon
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A collection of essays that discusses such issues as the media, immigration, the minimum wage, and multiculturalism.
-
-
Mr. Sowell exposed the soul of America.
- By ruth S. on 11-24-23
By: Thomas Sowell
-
Of Boys and Men
- Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do About It
- By: Richard V. Reeves
- Narrated by: Richard V. Reeves
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The father of three sons, a journalist, and a Brookings Institution scholar, Richard V. Reeves has spent twenty-five years worrying about boys both at home and work. His new book, Of Boys and Men, tackles the complex and urgent crisis of boyhood and manhood. Reeves looks at the structural challenges that face boys and men and offers fresh and innovative solutions that turn the page on the corrosive narrative that plagues this issue. Of Boys and Men argues that helping the other half of society does not mean giving up on the ideal of gender equality.
-
-
Regretful of My Knee-jerk Reaction To This Title 😔
- By Hazel Winters on 10-13-22
-
Is Reality Optional?
- And Other Essays
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Leon Nixon
- Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Amazing!
- By Anonymous User on 09-28-22
By: Thomas Sowell
Critic reviews
Related to this topic
-
Losing Ground
- American Social Policy, 1950 - 1980
- By: Charles Murray
- Narrated by: Robert Morris
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beginning in the 1950s, America entered a period of unprecedented social reform. This remarkable book demonstrates how the social programs of the 1960s and ’70s had the unintended and perverse effect of slowing and even reversing earlier progress in reducing poverty, crime, ignorance, and discrimination. Using widely understood and accepted data, it conclusively demonstrates that the amalgam of reforms from 1965 to 1970 actually made matters worse.
-
-
A great book ruined by a terrible recording
- By Michael on 04-05-13
By: Charles Murray
-
Disintegration
- The Splintering of Black America
- By: Eugene Robinson
- Narrated by: Alan Bomar Jones
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The African American population in the United States has always been seen as a single entity: a "Black America" with unified interests and needs. In his groundbreaking book Disintegration, longtime Washington Post journalist Eugene Robinson argues that, through decades of desegregation, affirmative action, and immigration, the concept of Black America has shattered.
-
-
Written for Popular Consumption
- By Catherine S. Read on 06-03-11
By: Eugene Robinson
-
Generation Me
- Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled - and More Miserable Than Ever Before
- By: Jean M. Twenge PhD
- Narrated by: Randye Kaye
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this provocative new book, psychologist and social commentator Dr. Jean Twenge documents the self-focus of what she calls "Generation Me" - people born in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Dr. Twenge explores why her generation is tolerant, confident, open-minded, and ambitious but also cynical, depressed, lonely, and anxious. Dr. Twenge reveals how profoundly different today's young adults are - and makes controversial predictions about what the future holds for them and society as a whole.
-
-
I mostly agree
- By David Hill on 05-25-20
-
Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism
- By: Arthur C. Brooks
- Narrated by: Dennis Holland
- Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In his controversial study of America's giving habits, Arthur C. Brooks shatters stereotypes about charity in America - including the myth that the political Left is more compassionate than the Right. Brooks, a preeminent public policy expert, spent years researching giving trends in America, and even he was surprised by what he found. In Who Really Cares, he identifies the forces behind American charity.
-
-
Let's talk truth!
- By Jeff on 09-02-12
By: Arthur C. Brooks
-
Who’s Your City?
- How the Creative Economy Is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life
- By: Richard Florida
- Narrated by: Mark Boyett
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
All places are not created equal. In this groundbreaking book, Richard Florida shows that where we live is increasingly a crucial factor in our lives, one that fundamentally affects our professional and personal prospects. As well as explaining why place matters now more than ever, Who's Your City? provides indispensable tools to help you choose the right place for you.
-
-
Disappointing
- By Mimi Routh on 08-08-10
By: Richard Florida
-
The Way We Never Were
- American Families and the Nostalgia Trap
- By: Stephanie Coontz
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 17 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Leave It to Beaver was not a documentary, a man's home has never been his castle, the "male breadwinner marriage" is the least traditional family in history, and rape and sexual assault were far higher in the 1970s than they are today. In The Way We Never Were, acclaimed historian Stephanie Coontz examines two centuries of the American family, sweeping away misconceptions about the past that cloud current debates about domestic life. The 1950s do not present a workable model of how to conduct our personal lives today, Coontz argues.
-
-
fantastic report on the dangers of nostalgia
- By Richard Stine on 06-29-21
By: Stephanie Coontz
-
Losing Ground
- American Social Policy, 1950 - 1980
- By: Charles Murray
- Narrated by: Robert Morris
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beginning in the 1950s, America entered a period of unprecedented social reform. This remarkable book demonstrates how the social programs of the 1960s and ’70s had the unintended and perverse effect of slowing and even reversing earlier progress in reducing poverty, crime, ignorance, and discrimination. Using widely understood and accepted data, it conclusively demonstrates that the amalgam of reforms from 1965 to 1970 actually made matters worse.
-
-
A great book ruined by a terrible recording
- By Michael on 04-05-13
By: Charles Murray
-
Disintegration
- The Splintering of Black America
- By: Eugene Robinson
- Narrated by: Alan Bomar Jones
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The African American population in the United States has always been seen as a single entity: a "Black America" with unified interests and needs. In his groundbreaking book Disintegration, longtime Washington Post journalist Eugene Robinson argues that, through decades of desegregation, affirmative action, and immigration, the concept of Black America has shattered.
-
-
Written for Popular Consumption
- By Catherine S. Read on 06-03-11
By: Eugene Robinson
-
Generation Me
- Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled - and More Miserable Than Ever Before
- By: Jean M. Twenge PhD
- Narrated by: Randye Kaye
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this provocative new book, psychologist and social commentator Dr. Jean Twenge documents the self-focus of what she calls "Generation Me" - people born in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Dr. Twenge explores why her generation is tolerant, confident, open-minded, and ambitious but also cynical, depressed, lonely, and anxious. Dr. Twenge reveals how profoundly different today's young adults are - and makes controversial predictions about what the future holds for them and society as a whole.
-
-
I mostly agree
- By David Hill on 05-25-20
-
Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism
- By: Arthur C. Brooks
- Narrated by: Dennis Holland
- Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In his controversial study of America's giving habits, Arthur C. Brooks shatters stereotypes about charity in America - including the myth that the political Left is more compassionate than the Right. Brooks, a preeminent public policy expert, spent years researching giving trends in America, and even he was surprised by what he found. In Who Really Cares, he identifies the forces behind American charity.
-
-
Let's talk truth!
- By Jeff on 09-02-12
By: Arthur C. Brooks
-
Who’s Your City?
- How the Creative Economy Is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life
- By: Richard Florida
- Narrated by: Mark Boyett
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
All places are not created equal. In this groundbreaking book, Richard Florida shows that where we live is increasingly a crucial factor in our lives, one that fundamentally affects our professional and personal prospects. As well as explaining why place matters now more than ever, Who's Your City? provides indispensable tools to help you choose the right place for you.
-
-
Disappointing
- By Mimi Routh on 08-08-10
By: Richard Florida
-
The Way We Never Were
- American Families and the Nostalgia Trap
- By: Stephanie Coontz
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 17 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Leave It to Beaver was not a documentary, a man's home has never been his castle, the "male breadwinner marriage" is the least traditional family in history, and rape and sexual assault were far higher in the 1970s than they are today. In The Way We Never Were, acclaimed historian Stephanie Coontz examines two centuries of the American family, sweeping away misconceptions about the past that cloud current debates about domestic life. The 1950s do not present a workable model of how to conduct our personal lives today, Coontz argues.
-
-
fantastic report on the dangers of nostalgia
- By Richard Stine on 06-29-21
By: Stephanie Coontz
-
Forget "Having It All"
- How America Messed Up Motherhood - and How to Fix It
- By: Amy Westervelt
- Narrated by: Amy Westervelt
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Forget "Having It All", Westervelt traces the roots of our modern expectations of mothers and motherhood back to extremist ideas held by the first Puritans who attempted to colonize America and examines how those ideals shifted - or didn't - through every generation since.
-
-
A Thorough and Well-Researched Book on The "Mom Predicament"
- By Merle B on 04-10-19
By: Amy Westervelt
-
Ghetto
- The Invention of a Place, the History of an Idea
- By: Mitchell Duneier
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On March 29, 1516, the city council of Venice issued a decree forcing Jews to live in il geto - a closed quarter named for the copper foundry that once occupied the area. The term stuck. In this sweeping and original interpretation, Mitchell Duneier traces the idea of the ghetto from its beginnings in the 16th century and its revival by the Nazis to the present. As Duneier shows, we cannot understand the entanglements of race, poverty, and place in America today without recalling the history of the ghetto in Europe, as well as later efforts to understand the problems of the American city.
-
-
Impressive
- By Jean on 12-10-16
By: Mitchell Duneier
-
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
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
MUST READ
- By RJW on 05-06-17
By: Tyler Cowen
-
The Big Sort
- Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart
- By: Bill Bishop, Robert G. Cushing
- Narrated by: Paul Brion
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2004, journalist Bill Bishop coined the term "the big sort". Armed with startling new demographic data, he made national news in a series of articles showing how Americans have been sorting themselves into alarmingly homogeneous communities - not by region or by state but by city and even neighborhood. Over the past three decades, we have been choosing the neighborhoods (and churches and news shows) compatible with our lifestyles and beliefs.
-
-
Build the Wall?
- By Amazon Customer on 01-23-19
By: Bill Bishop, and others
-
Korea
- The Impossible Country
- By: Daniel Tudor
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 13 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Long overshadowed by Japan and China, South Korea is a small country that happens to be one of the great national success stories of the postwar period. From a failed state with no democratic tradition, ruined and partitioned by war, and sapped by a half-century of colonial rule, South Korea transformed itself in just 50 years into an economic powerhouse and a democracy that serves as a model for other countries. With no natural resources and a tradition of authoritarian rule, Korea managed to accomplish a second Asian miracle.
-
-
Amazing book
- By Antoine on 12-14-18
By: Daniel Tudor
-
This Noble Land
- My Vision For America
- By: James A. Michener
- Narrated by: Arthur Addison
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This Noble Land is Michener's most personal statement about America, an examination of the issues that threaten to fragment and undermine the nation - racial conflict, the widening gulf between rich and poor, the decline of education, the inadequacies of our health care system - as well as a thought-provoking prescription for sustaining our "outstanding success". First published shortly before Michener's death, This Noble Land stands as a wake-up call for a troubled era, infused with the wisdom and passion of a lifetime.
-
-
A startling realization
- By Amazon Customer on 08-15-15
-
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
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Outstanding recitation of conservatism!
- By GLENNO on 08-06-15
By: Arthur C. Brooks
-
The Nordic Theory of Everything
- In Search of a Better Life
- By: Anu Partanen
- Narrated by: Abby Craden
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Moving to America in 2008, Finnish journalist Anu Partanen quickly went from confident, successful professional to wary, self-doubting mess. She found that navigating the basics of everyday life - from buying a cell phone and filing taxes to education and childcare - was much more complicated and stressful than anything she encountered in her homeland. At first she attributed her crippling anxiety to the difficulty of adapting to a freewheeling new culture. But as she got to know Americans better, she discovered they shared her deep apprehension.
-
-
A non-radical perspective on two societies
- By kwdayboise (Kim Day) on 06-20-17
By: Anu Partanen
-
All the Single Ladies
- Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation
- By: Rebecca Traister
- Narrated by: Candace Thaxton, Rebecca Traister - introduction
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a provocative, groundbreaking work, National Magazine Award finalist Rebecca Traister, "the most brilliant voice on feminism in this country" (Anne Lamott), traces the history of unmarried women in America who, through social, political, and economic means, have radically shaped our nation.
-
-
Excellent book, destroyed by narration
- By Theresa Holleran on 03-06-16
By: Rebecca Traister
-
Kids These Days
- Human Capital and the Making of Millennials
- By: Malcolm Harris
- Narrated by: Will Collyer
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everyone knows "what's wrong with millennials". Glenn Beck says we've been ruined by "participation trophies". Simon Sinek says we have low self-esteem. An Australian millionaire says millennials could all afford homes if we'd just give up avocado toast. Thanks, millionaire. This millennial is here to prove them all wrong.
-
-
A devastating dream of revolution
- By Kevin Tierney Jr on 11-23-17
By: Malcolm Harris
-
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
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Fantastic
- By Davena on 01-05-23
By: Matthew Stewart
-
American Grace
- How Religion Divides and Unites Us
- By: Robert D. Putnam, David E. Campbell
- Narrated by: Dan John Miller
- Length: 18 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
American Grace takes its findings from two of the largest, most comprehensive surveys ever conducted on religion and public life in America, plus in-depth studies of diverse congregations---among them a megachurch, a Mormon congregation, a Catholic parish, a reform Jewish synagogue, and an African American congregation.
-
-
Interesting Analysis
- By Daniel on 10-08-12
By: Robert D. Putnam, and others
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Facing Reality
- Two Truths About Race in America
- By: Charles Murray
- Narrated by: Robert Rivington
- Length: 3 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The charges of white privilege and systemic racism that are tearing the country apart fIoat free of reality. Two known facts, long since documented beyond reasonable doubt, need to be brought into the open and incorporated into the way we think about public policy: American Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians have different violent crime rates and different means and distributions of cognitive ability.
-
-
Thank you for writing this
- By jonathan bonnett on 06-20-21
By: Charles Murray
-
Losing Ground
- American Social Policy, 1950 - 1980
- By: Charles Murray
- Narrated by: Robert Morris
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beginning in the 1950s, America entered a period of unprecedented social reform. This remarkable book demonstrates how the social programs of the 1960s and ’70s had the unintended and perverse effect of slowing and even reversing earlier progress in reducing poverty, crime, ignorance, and discrimination. Using widely understood and accepted data, it conclusively demonstrates that the amalgam of reforms from 1965 to 1970 actually made matters worse.
-
-
A great book ruined by a terrible recording
- By Michael on 04-05-13
By: Charles Murray
-
The Age of Entitlement
- America Since the Sixties
- By: Christopher Caldwell
- Narrated by: Christopher Caldwell
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A major American intellectual makes the historical case that the reforms of the 1960s, reforms intended to make the nation more just and humane, instead left many Americans feeling alienated, despised, misled - and ready to put an adventurer in the White House. Christopher Caldwell has spent years studying the liberal uprising of the 1960s and its unforeseen consequences. Even the reforms that Americans love best have come with costs that are staggeringly high - in wealth, freedom, and social stability - and that have been spread unevenly among classes and generations.
-
-
Do laudable ends justify unconstitutional means?
- By LBJ on 02-08-20
-
The Origins of Woke
- Civil Rights Law, Corporate America, and the Triumph of Identity Politics
- By: Richard Hanania
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Richard Hanania has come out of nowhere to become one of the best-known writers in the nation in the last few years. In this book, he directs his attention to the culture war that has driven society apart and presents a stunning new theory about what is going on. In a nation nearly evenly split between conservatives and liberals, the left dominates nearly all major institutions, including universities, the government, and corporate America. Hanania argues that this is as much a legal requirement as it is an issue of one side triumphing in the marketplace of ideas.
-
-
New view of Civil Rights law
- By Customer on 11-04-23
By: Richard Hanania
-
Born Fighting
- How the Scots-Irish Shaped America
- By: Jim Webb
- Narrated by: Allan Robertson
- Length: 13 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Scots-Irish were 40 percent of the Revolutionary War army; they included the pioneers Daniel Boone, Lewis and Clark, Davy Crockett, and Sam Houston; they were the writers Edgar Allan Poe and Mark Twain; and they have given America numerous great military leaders, including Stonewall Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, Audie Murphy, and George S. Patton, as well as most of the soldiers of the Confederacy (only five percent of whom owned slaves, and who fought against what they viewed as an invading army).
-
-
Every politician should read this
- By Bette Grace on 02-08-19
By: Jim Webb
-
The Curmudgeon's Guide to Getting Ahead
- Dos and Don'ts of Right Behavior, Tough Thinking, Clear Writing, and Living a Good Life
- By: Charles Murray
- Narrated by: Charles Murray
- Length: 3 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Best-selling social historian Charles Murray has written a delightfully fussy - and entertaining - book on the hidden rules of the road in the workplace - and in life - from the standpoint of an admonishing, but encouraging, workplace grouch and taskmaster. Why the curmudgeon? The fact is that most older, more senior people in the workplace are closet curmudgeons. In today's politically correct world, they may hide their displeasure over your misuse of grammar or your overly familiar use of their first name without an express invitation. But don't be fooled by their pleasant demeanor....
-
-
Good Book: From one curmudgeon to another
- By DaWoolf on 05-22-14
By: Charles Murray
-
Facing Reality
- Two Truths About Race in America
- By: Charles Murray
- Narrated by: Robert Rivington
- Length: 3 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The charges of white privilege and systemic racism that are tearing the country apart fIoat free of reality. Two known facts, long since documented beyond reasonable doubt, need to be brought into the open and incorporated into the way we think about public policy: American Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians have different violent crime rates and different means and distributions of cognitive ability.
-
-
Thank you for writing this
- By jonathan bonnett on 06-20-21
By: Charles Murray
-
Losing Ground
- American Social Policy, 1950 - 1980
- By: Charles Murray
- Narrated by: Robert Morris
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beginning in the 1950s, America entered a period of unprecedented social reform. This remarkable book demonstrates how the social programs of the 1960s and ’70s had the unintended and perverse effect of slowing and even reversing earlier progress in reducing poverty, crime, ignorance, and discrimination. Using widely understood and accepted data, it conclusively demonstrates that the amalgam of reforms from 1965 to 1970 actually made matters worse.
-
-
A great book ruined by a terrible recording
- By Michael on 04-05-13
By: Charles Murray
-
The Age of Entitlement
- America Since the Sixties
- By: Christopher Caldwell
- Narrated by: Christopher Caldwell
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A major American intellectual makes the historical case that the reforms of the 1960s, reforms intended to make the nation more just and humane, instead left many Americans feeling alienated, despised, misled - and ready to put an adventurer in the White House. Christopher Caldwell has spent years studying the liberal uprising of the 1960s and its unforeseen consequences. Even the reforms that Americans love best have come with costs that are staggeringly high - in wealth, freedom, and social stability - and that have been spread unevenly among classes and generations.
-
-
Do laudable ends justify unconstitutional means?
- By LBJ on 02-08-20
-
The Origins of Woke
- Civil Rights Law, Corporate America, and the Triumph of Identity Politics
- By: Richard Hanania
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Richard Hanania has come out of nowhere to become one of the best-known writers in the nation in the last few years. In this book, he directs his attention to the culture war that has driven society apart and presents a stunning new theory about what is going on. In a nation nearly evenly split between conservatives and liberals, the left dominates nearly all major institutions, including universities, the government, and corporate America. Hanania argues that this is as much a legal requirement as it is an issue of one side triumphing in the marketplace of ideas.
-
-
New view of Civil Rights law
- By Customer on 11-04-23
By: Richard Hanania
-
Born Fighting
- How the Scots-Irish Shaped America
- By: Jim Webb
- Narrated by: Allan Robertson
- Length: 13 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Scots-Irish were 40 percent of the Revolutionary War army; they included the pioneers Daniel Boone, Lewis and Clark, Davy Crockett, and Sam Houston; they were the writers Edgar Allan Poe and Mark Twain; and they have given America numerous great military leaders, including Stonewall Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, Audie Murphy, and George S. Patton, as well as most of the soldiers of the Confederacy (only five percent of whom owned slaves, and who fought against what they viewed as an invading army).
-
-
Every politician should read this
- By Bette Grace on 02-08-19
By: Jim Webb
-
The Curmudgeon's Guide to Getting Ahead
- Dos and Don'ts of Right Behavior, Tough Thinking, Clear Writing, and Living a Good Life
- By: Charles Murray
- Narrated by: Charles Murray
- Length: 3 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Best-selling social historian Charles Murray has written a delightfully fussy - and entertaining - book on the hidden rules of the road in the workplace - and in life - from the standpoint of an admonishing, but encouraging, workplace grouch and taskmaster. Why the curmudgeon? The fact is that most older, more senior people in the workplace are closet curmudgeons. In today's politically correct world, they may hide their displeasure over your misuse of grammar or your overly familiar use of their first name without an express invitation. But don't be fooled by their pleasant demeanor....
-
-
Good Book: From one curmudgeon to another
- By DaWoolf on 05-22-14
By: Charles Murray
-
Melting Pot or Civil War?
- A Son of Immigrants Makes the Case Against Open Borders
- By: Reihan Salam
- Narrated by: Reihan Salam
- Length: 4 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For too long, liberals have suggested that only cruel, racist, or nativist bigots would want to restrict immigration. Anyone motivated by compassion and egalitarianism would choose open, or nearly-open, borders. Now, Reihan Salam, the son of Bangladeshi immigrants, turns this argument on its head. In this deeply researched but also deeply personal book, Salam shows why uncontrolled immigration is bad for everyone, including people like his family.
-
-
A wonderful ideas based conversation
- By Carolyn on 10-16-18
By: Reihan Salam
-
Human Diversity
- The Biology of Gender, Race, and Class
- By: Charles Murray
- Narrated by: David Baker
- Length: 14 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The thesis of Human Diversity is that advances in genetics and neuroscience are overthrowing an intellectual orthodoxy that has ruled the social sciences for decades. The core of the orthodoxy consists of three dogmas: Gender is a social construct. Race is a social construct. Class is a function of privilege. The problem is that all three dogmas are half-truths. They have stifled progress in understanding the rich texture that biology adds to our understanding of the social, political, and economic worlds we live in. It is not a story to be feared. But it is a story that needs telling.
-
-
Purchase the Kindle version not the audio book
- By Wayne on 02-09-20
By: Charles Murray
-
By the People
- Rebuilding Liberty Without Permission
- By: Charles Murray
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
- Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
American freedom is being gutted. Whether we are trying to run a business, practice a vocation, raise our families, cooperate with our neighbors, or follow our religious beliefs, we run afoul of the government—not because we are doing anything wrong but because the government has decided it knows better. When we object, that government can and does tell us, “Try to fight this, and we’ll ruin you.”
-
-
Finally, some possible solutions
- By Amazon Customer on 03-17-16
By: Charles Murray
-
The Loudest Voice in the Room
- How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News - and Divided a Country
- By: Gabriel Sherman
- Narrated by: Erik Singer
- Length: 17 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Rupert Murdoch enlisted Roger Ailes to launch a cable news network in 1996, American politics and media changed forever. With a remarkable level of detail and insight, Vanity Fair magazine reporter Gabriel Sherman puts Ailes’s unique genius on display, along with the outsize personalities - Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Megyn Kelly, Sarah Palin, Karl Rove, Glenn Beck, Mike Huckabee, Gretchen Carlson, Bill Shine, and others - who have helped Fox News play a defining role in the great social and political controversies of the past two decades.
-
-
A Monumental Achievement
- By L. Kerr on 01-28-14
By: Gabriel Sherman
-
The Unwinding
- An Inner History of the New America
- By: George Packer
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 18 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Unwinding, George Packer, author of The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq, tells the story of the United States over the past three decades in an utterly original way, with his characteristically sharp eye for detail and gift for weaving together complex narratives. The Unwinding portrays a superpower in danger of coming apart at the seams, its elites no longer elite, its institutions no longer working, its ordinary people left to improvise their own schemes for success and salvation.
-
-
Can't understand the low ratings!
- By Janet Pittman Henley on 05-27-13
By: George Packer
-
The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution: 1763-1789
- By: Robert Middlekauff
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 26 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Strong History Rich With Behind The Scenes Details
- By John on 10-06-11
-
The Age of Acrimony
- How Americans Fought to Fix Their Democracy, 1865-1915
- By: Jon Grinspan
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Age of Acrimony charts the rise and fall of 19th-century America’s unruly politics through the lives of a remarkable father-daughter dynasty. The radical congressman William "Pig Iron" Kelley and his fiery, Progressive daughter Florence Kelley led lives packed with drama, intimately tied to their nation’s politics. Through their friendships and feuds, campaigns and crusades, Will and Florie trace the narrative of a democracy in crisis.
-
-
Fascinating revelations
- By cat glickman on 08-06-21
By: Jon Grinspan
-
Why England Slept
- By: John F. Kennedy, Henry R. Luce
- Narrated by: AJ Crozby
- Length: 4 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1938, British statesman and soon-to-be Prime Minister Winston Churchill published his book Arms and the Covenant. It was published three months later in the US under the title While England Slept. In 1940, future President John F. Kennedy, who was a senior at Harvard University, wrote his dissertation, criticizing Churchill’s harsh blame of England’s leaders, even drawing comparisons between England and the United States for its own similar lack of preparedness against the totalitarian Nazi regime. Responding to Churchill's title, Kennedy named his book, Why England Slept.
By: John F. Kennedy, and others
-
The Managerial Revolution
- What Is Happening in the World
- By: James Burnham
- Narrated by: Keith Hahn
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Written in 1941, this is the book that theorized how the world was moving into the hands of the "managers". Burnham explains how capitalism had virtually lost its control, and would be displaced not by labour, nor by socialism, but by the rule of administrators in business and in government.
-
-
Horrendous narrator
- By Trick009 on 04-30-22
By: James Burnham
-
The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy
- By: Christopher Lasch
- Narrated by: David de Vries
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this challenging work, Christopher Lasch makes an accessible critique of what is wrong with the values and beliefs of America's professional and managerial elites. The distinguished historian argues that democracy today is threatened not by the masses, as Jose Ortega y Gasset ( The Revolt of the Masses) had said, but by the elites. These elites - mobile and increasingly global in outlook - refuse to accept limits or ties to nation and place.
-
-
The last twenty years proves the author right
- By Del Lewis-Chia on 08-08-20
-
Days of Rage
- America's Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence
- By: Bryan Burrough
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 22 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the best-selling author of Public Enemies and The Big Rich, an explosive account of the decade-long battle between the FBI and the homegrown revolutionary movements of the 1970s. The FBI combated these groups and others as nodes in a single revolutionary underground, dedicated to the violent overthrow of the American government. The FBI’s response to the leftist revolutionary counterculture has not been treated kindly by history, and in hindsight many of its efforts seem almost comically ineffectual, if not criminal in themselves.
-
-
Amazing treatment of tough history
- By Steven on 05-13-15
By: Bryan Burrough
-
Bush
- By: Jean Edward Smith
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 25 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Bush, Jean Edward Smith demonstrates that it was not Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, or Condoleezza Rice, but President Bush himself who took personal control of foreign policy. Bush drew on his deep religious conviction that important foreign-policy decisions were simply a matter of good versus evil. Domestically, he overreacted to 9/11 and endangered Americans' civil liberties.
-
-
Delusions of Competence
- By Rick on 11-18-16
What listeners say about Coming Apart
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ronald
- 09-03-12
An important book
Would you listen to Coming Apart again? Why?
Have already listened to it twice. This is an important book for those wanting to understand one of the dynamics shaping our society -- bifurcation by cognitive ability -- and its implications. While that was not new to me, its dimensions and its effects added to what I had already dimly perceived. What was new was how and why it was destroying "American Exceptionalism". Murray lays out the drivers of human happiness and how the modern welfare state enervates true human happiness. His prescription for a potential rebirth is quite interesting, and plausible in theory, but I don't think it will happen any time soon, and certainly not soon enough to prevent the withering away of American Exceptionalism. Too many decades of brainwashing (I tried to think of a less pejorative term but could not) have shaped an important segment of our population to the absolute need for and advantages of the welfare state. Only a complete collapse of the welfare state, which is probably decades away now that the printing of money has not only become acceptable but demanded, will force us to rethink what we have been told and learned.
Who was your favorite character and why?
None
What does Traber Burns bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
I probably would not have had the time to read the book. I listen to books when I exercise. Otherwise my day is quite full and there would be little time to read as many books as I listen to.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- RBS
- 04-06-17
Murray's valedictory work...
Brilliant, data-driven work by America's premiere libertarian intellectual. I highly recommend it, whether you are a Bobo in Paradise, or not.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Karen S. Robinette
- 11-13-18
Excellent Source of Very Important Data
This book is chock full of useful data about the state of America today. Dr. Murray provides solid evidence of the growing cultural and communication gap between lower and working middle class Americans and the often named upper 1 percent. This time, he has avoided the racism charge often thrown at him in the past by comparing only white members of each social class. The data is here. Dr. Murray knows his facts. Shouting at them and denying them will not change reality.
The massive amount of data makes the text better as a reference source than as reading material and that's probably why the reading seemed dry. Still, the information was eye opening and important - well worth reading.
Members of our educated upper class, especially in government or the media, should read or listen to this book with care and attention. Your public pronouncements and the governmental policies you tend to support demonstrate a complete lack of awareness of what America's laboring classes think and care about. Historically, such gulfs in understanding have led to revolutions. With only one exception I know of, America, those have always turned out badly for everybody involved. The unique conditions that made America's revolution turn out well are no longer present, so let's not go there.
Read this book. Pay attention. Keep it as a reference. Share with others. Let's try to understand what's pulling America apart and try to put it back together again.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Dan Collins
- 02-21-21
Class, not Race
I am not sure how this wound up on my reading list but I am glad it did. The author does a respectable job of handling data and explaining his reasoning on whether, for instance, two data sets support or confound one another and so should be explained or can be compartmentalized. At times I found this rigor to be a buzz kill but considering the controversy the topic and subject matter might generate, it was hard to be too harsh in my expectations that we " move this along" for the sake of my challenged attention span .
The author starts the book with the insistence that his desire is to look unblinkingly at the data with the intent of avoiding biases and preconceived notions. Based on the result, I think the author accomplishes this and gives the reader much to think about.
I found the author's insistence that the reader should consider his findings in light of their own experience to be humble and refreshing. I hope you will too.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- reader
- 03-16-12
Data-heavy for audio
Would you consider the audio edition of Coming Apart to be better than the print version?
This is a fantastic little bit of social science, but the author includes a lot of demographic data that can get confusing when in audio format. You'll lose some of the details by listening to it instead of reading it, but it will only matter if you're hoping to use the book as source material for research of your own. The narrator did what he could with it. Otherwise, well-performed and researched.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
15 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- nathan
- 10-06-19
Take it from someone who’s lived in Fishtown
I was motivated to read this book first from hearing some interesting talking points from Murray on Sam Harris’ podcast, and then later because Philadelphia Bishop Charles Chaput referenced the book several times in his own book “Strangers in a Strange Land” which dedicated significant time to issues of culture and religiosity in modern America.
My main criticism of the book would be that some of the categories of upper and lower class seem arbitrary in a very Malcolm Gladwellian style (if that wasn’t a term, it is now). By the end of the book I’d moderate that criticism by saying any book on sociology will not be scientific as there are simply too many variables. I enjoyed this as speculation accompanied by statistics.
For all the purely materialist perspective I’ve been bombarded with (especially whenever things steer towards politics), it was very refreshing to get an approach that examines the effects of culture and religiosity on social class. I’ve lived in west Austin as well as Fishtown (areas specifically mentioned in the book), and I can attest that the statistics at least in these cases match my anecdotal experience. It’s ironic that since the publication of this book, the winds of gentrification have blown through Fishtown all but clearing out the prior inhabitants. I also have a vivid memory of a doctor I know who moved to Fishtown referring her neighbors who were born and raised in the neighborhood as, “you know, Trump people.” almost in a whispered tone as if they were unwelcome people of a foreign culture — perhaps they were.
The most surprising point the book makes is that in surveys that define religiosity as attending a service in the past week, people in the upper class (Murray defines this as a combination of income and education) are religious at roughly twice the rate of people in the lower class.
The data and discussion on single parenthood and the positive effect of complete families is a discussion that sorely needs to be had. Of course this is a third rail issue in the modern political world, but Murray is the second person I’ve heard bring it up now. The other was Larry Elder.
For the #yanggang people, this book briefly touches on UBI. I’m always skeptical of sweeping nationwide changes as having too many potential unintended negative consequences. I remain agnostic on this.
Anyways, it was a thought provoking and easy read. I think any discussion on social class should have at least some discussion about cultural differences.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- noshcrissinger
- 09-02-18
A tough but must read
we wonder why it is the way it is and this will tell you why that is
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- TW
- 07-18-21
Insightful
A data driven long term presentation and analysis of the widening cultural divide caused by a number of things including increasing non sectarianism, growing dependence on government with less self reliance and the breakdown of the two parent family.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Norman
- 03-21-12
Fails to Ask the Real Questions
Do you have any additional comments?
You have to appreciate Murray's desire to speak the hard truths and that is definitely the strength of his book. However, he's a policy man in the end, and much of what he presents is crippled by his avowed libertarianism. For example, he argues that working class men have lost the desire to be
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Joe S
- 08-23-17
Good statistical analysis of class division
You will learn about the new upper class in the new lower class trends in the white community over the last 50 years. The causes for these trends aren't necessarily discussed the trends are simply reported. America is coming apart at the seams based on class not race. Be prepared for a lot of statistical analysis.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!