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American Schism
- How the Two Enlightenments Hold the Secret to Healing Our Nation
- Narrated by: Mike Lenz
- Length: 15 hrs and 19 mins
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Publisher's summary
The political dialogue in America has collapsed. Raw and bitter emotions such as anger and resentment have crowded out any logical debate. In this investigative tracing of our nation's divergent roots, author Seth David Radwell explains that only reasoned analysis and historical perspective can act as salves for the irrational political discourse that is raging at present.
Two disparate Americas have always coexisted, and Radwell discovered that the surprising origin of these dual Americas was not an Enlightenment, but two distinct Enlightenments that have been fiercely competing since the founding of our country. Radwell argues that it is only by embracing Enlightenment principles that we can build a civilized, progressive, and tolerant society.
American Schism reveals the roots of the rifts in America since its founding and what is really dividing red and blue America; the core issues that underlie all of today's bickering; and a detailed, effective plan to move forward, commencing what will be a long process of repair and reconciliation. Radwell changes the nature of the political debate by fighting unreason with reason, allowing Americans to firmly ground their differing points of view in rationality.
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Deep and accelerating inequality; unprecedented political polarization; vitriolic public discourse; a fraying social fabric; public and private narcissism — Americans today seem to agree on only one thing: This is the worst of times. But we’ve been here before. During the Gilded Age of the late 1800s, America was highly individualistic, starkly unequal, fiercely polarized, and deeply fragmented, just as it is today.
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For Progressives only. Won't make sense otherwise
- By Dennis G. on 12-19-20
By: Robert D. Putnam, and others
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A New Textbook of Americanism
- By: Jonathan Hoenig - editor
- Narrated by: Jonathan Hoenig
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Most people have no idea what the United States represents. Ayn Rand did grasp America's political essence down to its roots. Seventy-two years in the making, this book illuminates why the United States is "the only moral country in the history of the world" and features never-before-published discussions with Ayn Rand, plus work from Leonard Peikoff and the New Intellectuals.
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A Great Introduction to Objectionism
- By Lester C Liby on 06-27-19
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Bland Fanatics
- Liberals, the West, and the Afterlives of Empire
- By: Pankaj Mishra
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 7 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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In America and in England, faltering economies at home and failed wars abroad have generated a political and intellectual hysteria. It is a derangement manifested in a number of ways: nostalgia for imperialism, xenophobic paranoia, and denunciations of an allegedly intolerant left. These symptoms can be found even among the most informed of Anglo-America.
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Historical Liberalism on deathbed
- By Mehran Asdigha on 11-13-20
By: Pankaj Mishra
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The Idea of America
- Reflections on the Birth of the United States
- By: Gordon S Wood
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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The preeminent historian of the American Revolution explains why it remains the most significant event in our history
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Sophisticated analyses
- By Roger on 01-25-12
By: Gordon S Wood
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American Rule
- How a Nation Conquered the World but Failed Its People
- By: Jared Yates Sexton
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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In American Rule, Jared Yates Sexton upends those convenient fictions by laying bare the foundational myths at the heart of our collective American imagination. From the very origins of this nation, Americans in power have abused and subjugated others; enabling that corruption are the many myths of American exceptionalism and steadfast values, which are fed to the public and repeated across generations.
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Truth
- By Laurie on 09-28-20
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The Twilight of the American Enlightenment
- The 1950s and the Crisis of Liberal Belief
- By: George M. Marsden
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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In the aftermath of World War II, the United States stood at a precipice. The forces of modernity unleashed by the war had led to astonishing advances in daily life, but technology and mass culture also threatened to erode the country's traditional moral character. As award-winning historian George M. Marsden explains in The Twilight of the American Enlightenment, postwar Americans looked to the country's secular liberalelites for guidance in this precarious time, but these intellectuals proved unable to articulate a coherent common cause by which America could chart its course.
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Such a relevant book to our current world
- By Adam Shields on 09-14-16
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American Exceptionalism and American Innocence
- A People's History of Fake News - From The Revolutionary War to The War on Terror
- By: Roberto Sirvent, Danny Haiphong, Ajamu Baraka - foreword, and others
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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American Exceptionalism and American Innocence examines the stories we’re told that lead us to think that the U.S. is a force for good in the world, regardless of slavery, the genocide of indigenous people, and the more than a century’s worth of imperialist war that the U.S. has wrought on the planet. Roberto Sirvent and Danny Haiphong detail just what Captain America’s shield tells us about the pretensions of U.S. foreign policy, how Angelina Jolie and Bill Gates engage in humanitarian imperialism, and more.
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Still processing
- By D'Juan Eastman on 07-03-19
By: Roberto Sirvent, and others
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American Dialogue
- The Founders and Us
- By: Joseph J. Ellis
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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The story of history is a ceaseless conversation between past and present, and in American Dialogue, Joseph J. Ellis focuses the conversation on the often-asked question "What would the Founding Fathers think?" He examines four of our most seminal historical figures through the prism of particular topics, using the perspective of the present to shed light on their views and, in turn, to make clear how their now centuries-old ideas illuminate the disturbing impasse of today's political conflicts.
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A fine work, even with the editorializing
- By Casey Kerrick on 11-24-18
By: Joseph J. Ellis
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The Great Delusion
- Liberal Dreams and International Realities
- By: John J. Mearsheimer
- Narrated by: Noah Michael Levine
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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In this major statement, the renowned international-relations scholar John Mearsheimer argues that liberal hegemony, the foreign policy pursued by the United States since the Cold War ended, is doomed to fail. It makes far more sense, he maintains, for Washington to adopt a more restrained foreign policy based on a sound understanding of how nationalism and realism constrain great powers abroad.
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Dense, fact filled, sober analysis and prescription
- By John Brynjolfsson on 12-15-18
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The People vs. Democracy
- Why Our Freedom Is in Danger and How to Save It
- By: Yascha Mounk
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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The world is in turmoil. From India to Turkey and from Poland to the United States, authoritarian populists have seized power. As a result democracy itself may now be at risk. Two core components of liberal democracy - individual rights and the popular will - are at war with each other. As the role of money in politics soared and important issues were taken out of public contestation, a system of "rights without democracy" took hold. Populists who rail against this say they want to return power to the people. But in practice they create a system of "democracy without rights."
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Not worth it
- By DailyShopper on 06-07-18
By: Yascha Mounk
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Democracy Matters
- Winning the Fight Against Imperialism
- By: Cornel West
- Narrated by: Cornel West
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Democracy Matters is Cornel West's bold and powerful critique of the troubling deterioration of democracy in America in this threatening post-9/11 age of terrorist rage and imperial overreach, and an inspiring call for a resurgence of the deep democratic tradition in our country, which has waged war on the forces of imperialist corruption throughout our history.
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Well written, a refreshing voice of inspiration
- By Gabriel on 07-06-05
By: Cornel West
What listeners say about American Schism
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Nathan
- 01-13-22
Hope for national head/heart ache!
American Schism is brilliantly written. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed having my thinking poked at, focused, expanded, challenged, and confirmed. I yearn for a more civil country. I hold out hope as long as there are people willing to intelligently converse rather than blindly contend.
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- c
- 05-14-24
Greatest hopes, but disappointed
The first part of the book was objective, Although, I agree with the author on Trump, the book turned silly when “suggestions” were finally offered.
As a (dying breed) fiscal conservative and social liberal, the book initially promised ways to converse with my far left friends and my MAGA intolerants. How to get past the volcanic vitriol of each side is yet to be discovered. hard. I gave up with 22 minutes left.
In retrospect, I feel I lost about 5-6 hours of good reading. Your experience may be different…
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- Edward Beaudoin
- 12-01-21
Biased
Biased left leaning opinion throughout what could've been a very useful read. Very long anti Trump hit piece
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- Kenneth
- 08-07-22
The Analysis in the Last Chapters Make it Worth the Listen
I only wish the narrator, who is on the whole pretty good, knew how to pronounce French, which is so important to the early part of this narrative.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Kasper Kubica
- 07-29-21
A sorely needed optimistic view at our situation and the path forward
Radwell plainly lays out the diversity of ideas that founded the USA, traces these ideas through the evolution of our nation and its discourse, and finally sheds a quite revealing light at how these ideas explain our current sociopolitical agitation.
This book may be a bit heavy on history for those looking for a light political read - but this is precisely what allows it to present such an apolitical yet normative and compelling case for the path forward that preserves all of America’s uniquely powerful founding ideals, without letting our country stagnate in political decay. I highly recommend this read - and thanks to an excellent and engaging narrator, I highly recommended this listen, too.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Dorsey Cartwright
- 05-08-22
A more mature, viable structure for making sense
Seth’s opening question in his prologue, “How had it come to be that over the last four years my entire conception of the American credo had crumbled?” So spoke to me and the angst I have been experiencing as my lifelong image of my country was dissolving before my very eyes. Seeking answers to his questions, Seth has written an almost 500-page book of which I relished every word as I felt my own perspective expanding.
I’ve learned so much and now have such a broader sense of the history and evolution of America and a richer context for understanding the current dynamics around me. There is a comfort in having a more mature, viable structure for making sense of the world I live in.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Sandra Allen
- 03-08-23
Could have been great
Excellent work tying the establishment and evolution of our country to the enlightenment.
Weak when it comes to diagnosing the root cause of the issues of today he chose to focus on. Hence, his remedies are superficial and are to agree with because the issues were not thoroughly diagnosed or supported with solid data and analysis.
He also seems clearly biased against certain people without a solid, fact based case. In fact, some assertions and accusations have been show to be absolutely unfounded or even contrary to facts we know today.
Nevertheless, even with those unfavorable comments considered, I strongly recommend reading this book. Maybe even more so because of those comments.
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- RosemaryJ
- 12-28-21
A must read on the Enlightenment for America today
A reverential yet unsentimental tone to the history of our country is felt and heard in American Schism, Seth David Radwell’s timely and revealing book. His focus on the influence of Enlightenment thinkers e.g., Descartes, Kant, Hume and Locke to name a few, on our founding father’s authorship of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights and the growing strife brought on by the Louisiana Purchase, the travesty of the Jim Crow laws are thoroughly and eloquently examined.
Radwell succeeds in presenting the historical facts in a scholastic manner, yet attainable, language to a mainstream audience without ever sacrificing the poignant analysis of the question he grapples with in the book’s introduction; What happen in America? How can a country that elected the first African American president with the least presidential name in U.S. history, Barack Hussein Obama, then elect, Donald J. Trump, self-aggrandizing businessman whose neoconservative rhetoric resonated with so many Americans.
Unlike his predecessors that have taken on this subject, he does not propose that the American Civil War never ended, or that our political strife is too steep to climb out of or even suggest that our current cultural divide can be resolved after one or two election cycles. He poses the question back to us, his reader and fellow American, to seek an understanding beyond tribal thinking to a humanist approach where the American Schism is healed, and the rights of all individuals are respected and celebrated to truly embody American freedom, and ideals that our country was founded on.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Fabulous (jk) Frank
- 10-03-22
A must read for every serious politician.
At a minimum, read the last chapter.
Deeply researched suggestions, masterfully presented.
I loved it.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Harry N. Gottlieb
- 10-21-24
Excellent and valuable.
A well written history that offers a well argued framework (and one I've not seen before) describing how we've found ourselves in the current political predicament.
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