Top Politics & Social Sciences Audiobooks

By the time of his death on July 23, 1885, Ulysses S. Grant was an icon in the historical memory of the United States. Just a few decades later, however, constant criticism of his military and political leadership had tarnished his reputation....

In 10 lectures, award-winning historian Patrick N. Allitt transports listeners to England in the 1840s and 1850s. During those two decades, Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, became one of the most influential people in the country and remains a figure of fascination even today....

"Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains." These are the famous opening words of a treatise that has not ceased to stir vigorous debate since its first publication in 1762.

In this moving account, Peter Korn explores the nature and rewards of creative practice....

Whistleblowers pay with their lives to save ours. When insiders like former NSA analyst Edward Snowden, ex-FBI agent Coleen Rowley, or Big Tobacco truth-teller Jeffrey Wigand blow the whistle....

In weeks after the September 11 attacks, 18-year-old Mansoor Adayfi was kidnapped by Afghan militia and sold to US forces for bounty money. After months of interrogations, he was sent to the US military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as one of its first prisoners.

A shocking investigation revealing why greedy oil companies are lying to the American people....

David W. Powell enlisted for a tour of duty in April 1966 with the US Marines after receiving an imminent draft notice. Believing he would be able to leverage his existing skills as a computer programmer, he never thought all they would see on his resume was his Karate expertise....

In 2009, three US professors with access to Adolf Hitler’s alleged remains startled the world with scientific DNA proof....

In this powerful and wide-ranging collection of essays, Rebecca Solnit turns her attention to the war at home. This is a war, she says, "[W]ith so many casualties that we should call it by its true name, this war with so many dead by police, by violent ex-husbands and partners and lovers, by...

Since its publication nearly 70 years ago, George Orwell’s 1984 has been regarded as one of the most influential novels of the modern age. Politicians have testified to its influence on their intellectual identities....

Mistakes so big they seem like fodder for The Onion—but they really happened!....

Welcome to the era of true marriages of convenience. Discover the reality of trading someone’s hand in marriage, such as an American heiress, in exchange for money, power, or political clout through compelling history lectures....

In simple and straightforward language, Bhante Gunaratana shares the Buddha's teachings on mindfulness and how we can use these principles to improve our daily lives....

Trace the growth of communism from Stalin’s consolidation of power to the establishment of communist regimes in Eastern Europe, China, Korea, Vietnam, and elsewhere in Communism in Power: From Stalin to Mao....

They’re known as the bebés robados, or “stolen babies”–children stolen at birth from their mothers and sold to wealthy families around Spain....

For Roshi Pat Enkyo O'Hara, intimacy is what Zen practice is all about: the realization of the essential lack of distinction between self and other that inevitably leads to wisdom....

In the 10 lectures of Wolves and Werewolves in History and Popular Culture, author and teacher Shannon Scott will take you around the world to explore the many ways humans have created and shared stories of wolves, shape-shifting, and lycanthropy....

The phrase "the meaning of life" for many seems a quaint notion fit for satirical mauling by Monty Python or Douglas Adams. But in this spirited Very Short Introduction, famed critic Terry Eagleton takes a serious if often amusing look at the question and offers his own surprising answer...

The tradition of ancient philosophy is a long, rich, and varied one, in which a constant note is that of discussion and argument. This book introduces listeners to some ancient debates to engage with the ancient developments of some themes. Getting away from the presentation of ancient...