The Engagement
America's Quarter-Century Struggle over Same-Sex Marriage
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Narrated by:
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Graham Halstead
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By:
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Sasha Issenberg
About this listen
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR • The riveting story of the conflict over same-sex marriage in the United States—the most significant civil rights breakthrough of the new millennium
"Full of intimate details, battling personalities, heated court cases, public persuasion.” —John Williams, The New York Times
On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that state bans on gay marriage were unconstitutional, making same-sex unions legal across the United States. But the road to that momentous decision was much longer than many know. In this definitive account, Sasha Issenberg vividly guides us through same-sex marriage’s unexpected path from the unimaginable to the inevitable.
It is a story that begins in Hawaii in 1990, when a rivalry among local activists triggered a sequence of events that forced the state to justify excluding gay couples from marriage. In the White House, one president signed the Defense of Marriage Act, which elevated the matter to a national issue, and his successor tried to write it into the Constitution. Over twenty-five years, the debate played out across the country, from the first legal same-sex weddings in Massachusetts to the epic face-off over California’s Proposition 8 and, finally, to the landmark Supreme Court decisions of United States v. Windsor and Obergefell v. Hodges. From churches to hedge funds, no corner of American life went untouched.
This richly detailed narrative follows the coast-to-coast conflict through courtrooms and war rooms, bedrooms and boardrooms, to shed light on every aspect of a political and legal controversy that divided Americans like no other. Following a cast of characters that includes those who sought their own right to wed, those who fought to protect the traditional definition of marriage, and those who changed their minds about it, The Engagement is certain to become a seminal book on the modern culture wars.
©2020 Sasha Issenberg (P)2020 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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“A lively, encyclopedic survey of the struggle for marriage equality...Issenberg emphasizes an overlapping, conflicting and often serendipitous series of events...a complex and chaotic chain reaction that thrust same-sex marriage from the realm of conservative conjecture...to the forefront of the American consciousness, to the top of the gay political agenda and, eventually, to the halls of the Supreme Court.” (Eric Cervini, The New York Times Book Review)
“Part Grisham-esque legal thriller, part Sorkin-esque political drama, and part Maddow-esque historical yarn.” (O, The Oprah Magazine)
“Insightful and breezy.... Tracing the evolution of both public opinion and politics around marriage equality, the work holds a mirror up to how much America has changed in a short period of time and how those in power actually followed the public embrace of same-sex marriage, rather than lead it.” (Philip Elliot, Time Magazine)
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Story
Justice Anthony Kennedy slipped out of the Supreme Court building on June 27, 2018, and traveled incognito to the White House to inform President Donald Trump that he was retiring, setting in motion a political process that his successor, Brett Kavanaugh, would denounce three months later as a "national disgrace" and a "circus". Justice on Trial, the definitive insider's account of Kavanaugh's appointment to the Supreme Court, is based on extraordinary access to more than 100 key figures - including the president, justices, and senators - in that ferocious political drama.
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Politicians behaving badly!
- By Wayne on 07-13-19
By: Mollie Hemingway, and others
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Sisters in Law
- How Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Went to the Supreme Court and Changed the World
- By: Linda Hirshman
- Narrated by: Andrea Gallo
- Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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The author of the celebrated Victory tells the fascinating story of the intertwined lives of Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the first and second women to serve as Supreme Court justices.
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Insightful and thought-provoking
- By Jean on 09-08-15
By: Linda Hirshman
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Reckoning
- The Epic Battle Against Sexual Abuse and Harassment
- By: Linda Hirshman
- Narrated by: Carrington MacDuffie
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Linda Hirshman, acclaimed historian of social movements, delivers the sweeping story of the struggle leading up to #MeToo and beyond: from the first tales of workplace harassment percolating to the surface in the 1970s, to the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal - when liberal women largely forgave Clinton, giving men a free pass for two decades. Many liberals even resisted the movement to end rape on campus. And yet, legal, political, and cultural efforts, often spearheaded by women of color, were quietly paving the way for the takedown of abusers and harassers.
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Superb!
- By Tee Thior on 01-02-22
By: Linda Hirshman
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Enabling Acts
- The Hidden Story of How the Americans With Disabilities Act Gave the Largest US Minority Its Rights
- By: Lennard Davis
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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The first significant book on the history and impact of the ADA - the "eyes on the prize" moment for disability rights. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is the widest-ranging and most comprehensive piece of civil rights legislation ever passed in the United States, and it has become the model for disability-based laws around the world. Yet the surprising story behind how the bill came to be is little known.
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this book is so informative
- By Anonymous User on 01-10-23
By: Lennard Davis
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One Vote Away
- How a Single Supreme Court Seat Can Change History
- By: Ted Cruz
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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In One Vote Away, you will discover how often the high court decisions that affect your life have been decided by just one vote. One vote preserves your right to speak freely, to bear arms, and to exercise your faith. One vote will determine whether your children enjoy their full inheritance as American citizens.
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Intellectual and Insightful, so smartly written it became prophetic!
- By Kevin D. on 09-29-20
By: Ted Cruz
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Resistance
- How Women Saved Democracy from Donald Trump
- By: Jennifer Rubin
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 13 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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In the tradition of Shattered and Game Change, Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin provides an insider’s look at how women across the political spectrum carried a revolution to the ballot box and defeated Donald Trump, based on interviews with key figures such as Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Stacey Abrams, Nancy Pelosi, and many more.
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An excellent book
- By Gary on 02-02-22
By: Jennifer Rubin
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Give Us the Ballot
- The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America
- By: Ari Berman
- Narrated by: Tom Zingarelli
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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The adoption of the landmark Voting Rights Act in 1965 enfranchised millions of Americans and is widely regarded as the crowning achievement of the civil rights movement. Yet fifty years later, we are still fighting heated battles over race, representation, and political power - over the right to vote, the central pillar of our democracy. A groundbreaking narrative history of voting rights since 1965, Give Us the Ballot tells the story of what happened after the act was passed.
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In-Depth Blow by Blow Account of the VRA
- By Gillian on 10-25-16
By: Ari Berman
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The Next Red Wave
- How Conservatives Can Beat Leftist Aggression, RINO Betrayal & Deep State Subversion
- By: Jordan Sekulow, Matthew Clark - contributor, Benjamin Sisney - contributor
- Narrated by: Jordan Sekulow
- Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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The next red wave is coming: November 3, 2020. We face battles on many fronts. The Deep State bureaucracy will stop at nothing to undermine the conservative agenda, even when that's the agenda chosen by the American voter. The liberal bureaucracy will continue to work alongside former liberal government officials from, yes, the Obama Administration and Team Clinton. In this election, the Left's prized goal - exclusively - will be defeating President Donald Trump by whatever means necessary.
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FABULOUS AND TIMELY
- By Michael Niebuhr on 09-26-19
By: Jordan Sekulow, and others
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American Carnage
- On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump
- By: Tim Alberta
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 26 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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The 2016 election was a watershed for the United States. But, as Tim Alberta explains in American Carnage, to understand Trump’s victory is to view him not as the creator of this era of polarization and bruising partisanship, but rather as its most manifest consequence. American Carnage is the story of a president’s rise based on a country’s evolution and a party’s collapse. As George W. Bush left office with record-low approval ratings and Barack Obama led a Democratic takeover of Washington, Republicans faced a moment of reckoning.
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masterpiece
- By ZZ on 07-26-19
By: Tim Alberta
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Forcing the Spring
- Inside the Fight for Marriage Equality
- By: Jo Becker
- Narrated by: Jamie Leonhart
- Length: 14 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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A tour de force of groundbreaking reportage by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jo Becker, Forcing the Spring follows the historic legal challenge mounted against California’s ban on same-sex marriage, a remarkable lawsuit that forced the issue of marriage equality before the highest court in the land. For nearly five years Becker embedded with the lawsuit’s plaintiffs, was given free rein within the legal and political war rooms where strategy was plotted, and attended every day of the trial and every appellate argument.
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A stirring courtroom drama
- By David on 05-19-14
By: Jo Becker
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The Everything American Government Book
- From the Constitution to Present-Day Elections, All You Need to Understand Our Democratic System
- By: Nick Ragone
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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If the confusion following the last presidential election is any indication, the average citizen knows precious little about the democratic system and the laws that affect their daily lives. The Everything American Government Book unravels the complexities of our democracy and provides listeners with the knowledge necessary to make the right decisions and take an active role in the management of their country. This thoroughly researched work is ideal for anyone brushing up on civics, as well as students of all ages.
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A solid understanding of local, state and national political structure...
- By Amazon Customer on 12-25-19
By: Nick Ragone
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Unrigged
- How Americans Are Battling Back to Save Democracy
- By: David Daley
- Narrated by: L.J. Ganser
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Following Ratf--ked, his “extraordinary timely and undeniably important” (New York Times Book Review) expose of how a small cadre of Republican operatives rigged American elections, David Daley emerged as one of the nation's leading authorities on gerrymandering. In Unrigged, he charts a vibrant political movement that is rising in the wake of his and other reporters' revelations.
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A must-read to uphold democracy!
- By Steve Kelem on 09-09-20
By: David Daley
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A Woman in Charge
- The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton
- By: Carl Bernstein
- Narrated by: Dick Rodstein
- Length: 24 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Carl Bernstein's stunning portrait of Hillary Rodham Clinton shows us, as nothing else has, the true trajectory of her life and career, with its zigzag bursts of risks taken and safety sought. Marshaling all the skills and energy that propelled his history-making Pulitzer Prize reporting on Watergate, Bernstein gives us the most detailed, sophisticated, comprehensive, and revealing account of Hilary Rodham Clinton yet.
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in depth and well-written
- By Katherine on 07-20-07
By: Carl Bernstein