The Birth Certificate
An American History
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The Birth Certificate
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Narrated by:
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Laural Merlington
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By:
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Susan J. Pearson
About this listen
For many Americans, the birth certificate is a mundane piece of paper, unearthed from deep storage when applying for a driver's license, verifying information for new employers, or claiming state and federal benefits. Yet as Donald Trump and his fellow "birthers" reminded us when they claimed that Barack Obama wasn't an American citizen, it plays a central role in determining identity and citizenship.
In The Birth Certificate: An American History, award-winning historian Susan J. Pearson traces the document's two-hundred-year history to explain when, how, and why birth certificates came to matter so much in the United States. Deftly weaving together social, political, and legal history, The Birth Certificate is a fascinating biography of a piece of paper that grounds our understanding of how those who live in the United States are considered Americans.
©2021 Susan J. Pearson (P)2022 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 28
Best-selling author Ted Stewart explains how the Supreme Court and its nine appointed members now stand at a crucial point in their power to hand down momentous and far-ranging decisions. Today's Court affects every major area of American life, from health care to civil rights, from abortion to marriage. This fascinating book reveals the complex history of the Court as told through seven pivotal decisions.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Polemical, downright ridiculous at times
- By Joe Igla on 11-04-17
By: Ted Stewart
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An African American and Latinx History of the United States
- By: Paul Ortiz
- Narrated by: J. D. Jackson
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 455
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 400
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Story5 out of 5 stars 395
Spanning more than 200 years, An African American and Latinx History of the United States is a revolutionary, politically charged narrative history arguing that the "Global South" was crucial to the development of America as we know it. Ortiz challenges the notion of westward progress, and shows how placing African American, Latinx, and Indigenous voices unapologetically front and center transforms American history into the story of the working class organizing against imperialism.
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2 out of 5 stars
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I had to return
- By Andrew Alvarez on 05-19-20
By: Paul Ortiz
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This Noble Land
- My Vision For America
- By: James A. Michener
- Narrated by: Arthur Addison
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 42
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 38
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Story4 out of 5 stars 39
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.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A startling realization
- By Amazon Customer on 08-15-15
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Pox
- An American History
- By: Michael Willrich
- Narrated by: K. Todd Freeman
- Length: 14 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 60
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 51
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Story4 out of 5 stars 50
At the turn of the last century, a smallpox epidemic swept the United States. The age-old disease spread swiftly through an increasingly interconnected American landscape: from southern plantations to the immigrant neighborhoods of northern cities to far-flung villages on the edges of the American empire. In Pox, historian Michael Willrich offers a gripping chronicle of how the nation's continent-wide fight against smallpox launched one of the most important civil liberties struggles of the 20th century.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Best book on smallpox
- By Chris M. White on 09-07-21
By: Michael Willrich
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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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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 581
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 527
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 524
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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5 out of 5 stars
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Insightful and thought-provoking
- By Jean on 09-08-15
By: Linda Hirshman
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Louis D. Brandeis
- A Life
- By: Melvin I Urofsky
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 35 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 157
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 122
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 120
The first full-scale biography in 25 years of one of the most important and distinguished justices to sit on the Supreme Court - an audiobook that reveals Louis D. Brandeis the reformer, lawyer, and jurist, and Brandeis the man, in all of his complexity, passion, and wit. As a lawyer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, he pioneered how modern law is practiced.
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5 out of 5 stars
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a Listen to Louis D. Brandeis
- By J on 07-11-10
By: Melvin I Urofsky
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The Majesty of the Law
- Reflections of a Supreme Court Justice
- By: Sandra Day O'Connor
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 87
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 44
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Story4 out of 5 stars 45
In this remarkable book, Sandra Day O’Connor explores the law, her life as a Supreme Court Justice, and how the Court has evolved and continues to function, grow, and change as an American institution. Tracing some of the origins of American law through history, people, ideas, and landmark cases, O’Connor sheds new light on the basics, exploring through personal observation the evolution of the Court and American democratic traditions.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Informative and well-written
- By James on 07-11-05
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When Affirmative Action Was White
- An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America
- By: Ira Katznelson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 260
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 226
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Story5 out of 5 stars 223
In this "penetrating new analysis" ( New York Times Book Review), Ira Katznelson fundamentally recasts our understanding of 20th century American history and demonstrates that all the key programs passed during the New Deal and Fair Deal era of the 1930s and 1940s were created in a deeply discriminatory manner. Through mechanisms designed by southern democrats that specifically excluded maids and farm workers, the gap between blacks and whites actually widened despite postwar prosperity.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Absolute Must Read
- By Andrew on 01-02-18
By: Ira Katznelson
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Everything You Wanted to Know about Indians but Were Afraid to Ask
- By: Anton Treuer
- Narrated by: Kaipo Schwab
- Length: 5 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 200
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 178
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Story5 out of 5 stars 174
What have you always wanted to know about Indians? Do you think you should already know the answers-or suspect that your questions may be offensive? In matter-of-fact responses to over 120 questions, both thoughtful and outrageous, modern and historical, Ojibwe scholar and cultural preservationist Anton Treuer gives a frank, funny, and sometimes personal tour of what's up with Indians, anyway.
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5 out of 5 stars
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one of the better books
- By Erica Kerr on 07-14-18
By: Anton Treuer
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Inventing Latinos
- A New Story of American Racism
- By: Laura E. Gómez
- Narrated by: Joana Garcia
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 73
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 63
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 63
Latinos have long influenced everything from electoral politics to popular culture‚ yet many people instinctively regard them as recent immigrants rather than a longstanding racial group. In Inventing Latinos‚ Laura Gomez illuminates the fascinating race-making‚ unmaking‚ and remaking of Latino identity that has spanned centuries‚ leaving a permanent imprint on how race operates in the United States today.
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3 out of 5 stars
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mixed reaction
- By david on 09-24-21
By: Laura E. Gómez
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Injustices
- The Supreme Court's History of Comforting the Comfortable and Afflicting the Afflicted
- By: Ian Millhiser
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 94
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 88
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 87
Few American institutions have inflicted greater suffering on ordinary people than the Supreme Court of the United States. Since its inception the justices of the Supreme Court have shaped a nation where children toiled in coal mines, where Americans could be forced into camps because of their race, and where a woman could be sterilized against her will by state law.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Is It HALF FULL or HALF EMPTY ? It Depends !
- By James on 04-01-15
By: Ian Millhiser
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Sex and the Constitution
- Sex, Religion, and Law from America's Origins to the Twenty-First Century
- By: Geoffrey R. Stone
- Narrated by: William Dufris
- Length: 20 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 86
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 77
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 76
Constitutional scholar Geoffrey R. Stone traces the evolution of legal and moral codes that have attempted to legislate sexual behavior from the ancient world to America's earliest days to today's fractious political climate. Stone crafts a remarkable narrative in which he shows how agitators, moralists, legislators, and especially the justices of the Supreme Court have historically navigated issues as explosive and divisive as abortion, homosexuality, pornography, and contraception.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Divisive Issues
- By Joanne on 06-28-17
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Making Our Democracy Work
- A Judge’s View
- By: Justice Stephen Breyer
- Narrated by: Luis Moreno
- Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 64
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 45
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 44
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer delivers an impassioned argument for the proper role of America’s highest judicial body. Examining historic and contemporary decisions by the Court, Breyer highlights the rulings that have bolstered public confidence as well as the missteps that have triggered distrust. What emerges is a unique approach - certain to be admired for years to come - to interpreting the Constitution.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Timely
- By Don on 05-17-17
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The Supremes' Greatest Hits, 2nd Revised & Updated Edition
- The 44 Supreme Court Cases That Most Directly Affect Your Life
- By: Michael G. Trachtman
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 67
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 53
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 54
The Supreme Court's rulings have shaped American life and justice and allowed Americans to retain basic freedoms such as privacy, free speech, and the right to a fair trial. This revised and updated edition of Michael G. Trachtman's riveting work includes 10 important cases from 2010 to 2015.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Nice review overall.
- By "freeindeed4ever" on 02-10-20