The Presidents and the People
Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to Defend It
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Narrated by:
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Stephen Bel Davies
About this listen
Imagine an American president who imprisoned critics, spread a culture of white supremacy, and tried to upend the law so that he could commit crimes with impunity.
In this propulsive history, constitutional law and political science professor Corey Brettschneider provides a thoroughly researched account of assaults on democracy by not one such president, but five.
John Adams waged war on the national press of the early republic. In the lead-up to the Civil War, James Buchanan colluded with the Supreme Court to deny constitutional personhood to African Americans. A decade later, Andrew Johnson urged violence against his political opponents after the Civil War. In the 1910s, Woodrow Wilson modernized, popularized, and nationalized Jim Crow laws. In the 1970s, Richard Nixon committed criminal acts that flowed from his corrupt ideas about presidential power.
Corey Brettschneider shows that these presidents didn't have the last word; citizen movements brought the United States back from the precipice by appealing to a democratic understanding of the Constitution and pressuring subsequent reform-minded presidents to realize the promise of "We the People." This is a book about citizens who fought back against presidential abuses of power. Their examples give us hope about the possibilities of restoring a fragile democracy.
©2024 Corey Brettschneider (P)2024 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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5 out of 5 stars
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We’d be in a much better position if everyone read this
- By Jeffrey Schwartz on 10-01-23
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To Make Men Free
- A History of the Republican Party
- By: Heather Cox Richardson
- Narrated by: Heather Cox Richardson
- Length: 15 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 203
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 177
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Story5 out of 5 stars 175
Acclaimed historian Heather Cox Richardson traces the shifting ideology of the Republican Party from the antebellum era to the Great Recession. While progressive Republicans like Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower revived Lincoln’s vision and expanded the government, their opponents appealed to Americans’ latent racism and xenophobia to regain political power, linking taxation and regulation to redistribution and socialism. In the modern era, the schism within the Republican Party has grown wider, pulling the GOP ever further from its founding principles.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fascinating read!
- By Marsha on 12-27-21
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Illiberal America
- A History
- By: Steven Hahn
- Narrated by: Mitch Crawford
- Length: 17 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 19
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 18
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Story4 out of 5 stars 18
If your reaction to the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol was to think, 'That's not us,' think again: in Illiberal America, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian uncovers a powerful illiberalism as deep seated in the American past as the founding ideals.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Comprehensive American History
- By Rolando on 08-27-24
By: Steven Hahn
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Rebellion
- How Antiliberalism Is Tearing America Apart—Again
- By: Robert Kagan
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 102
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 92
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Story5 out of 5 stars 92
The 2024 election could be the last free election held in a unified America. So warns Robert Kagan in this brilliant and terrifying analysis of the perilous state of democracy in the United States today. If Donald Trump loses the upcoming election, as he did in 2020, but refuses to accept the result, as he also did in the last election, he is likely to call on his millions of followers to repudiate the election results. It will be a short step from there to Republican-dominated states rejecting the legitimacy of the federal government and effectively seceding.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Best Book In Its Class
- By Laurie on 05-02-24
By: Robert Kagan
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Minority Rule
- The Right-Wing Attack on the Will of the People - and the Fight to Resist It
- By: Ari Berman
- Narrated by: Gary Tiedemann
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 84
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 76
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Story5 out of 5 stars 76
The mob that stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, represented an extreme form of the central danger facing American democracy today: a blatant disregard for the will of the majority. Through voter suppression, election subversion, gerrymandering, dark money, the takeover of the courts, and the whitewashing of history, reactionary white conservatives have strategically entrenched power in the face of a massive demographic and political shift.
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5 out of 5 stars
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SO much great information!
- By CharlieSeymourJr on 05-01-24
By: Ari Berman
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Reading the Constitution
- Why I Chose Pragmatism, Not Textualism
- By: Stephen Breyer
- Narrated by: Stephen Breyer
- Length: 12 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 96
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 86
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 86
The relatively new judicial philosophy of textualism dominates the Supreme Court. Textualists claim that the right way to interpret the Constitution and statutes is to read the text carefully and examine the language as it was understood at the time the documents were written. This, however, is not Justice Breyer’s philosophy nor has it been the traditional way to interpret the Constitution since the time of Chief Justice John Marshall. Justice Breyer recalls Marshall’s exhortation that the Constitution must be a workable set of principles to be interpreted by subsequent generations.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Very Annoying Narration
- By Minnie I. on 04-21-24
By: Stephen Breyer
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How the South Won the Civil War
- Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America
- By: Heather Cox Richardson
- Narrated by: Heather Cox Richardson
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,562
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,374
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,363
While the North prevailed in the Civil War, ending slavery and giving the country a "new birth of freedom," Heather Cox Richardson argues in this provocative work that democracy's blood-soaked victory was ephemeral. The system that had sustained the defeated South moved westward and there established a foothold. It was a natural fit. Settlers from the East had for decades been pushing into the West, where the seizure of Mexican lands at the end of the Mexican-American War and treatment of Native Americans cemented racial hierarchies....
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1 out of 5 stars
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Disappointing book that wasted such potential.
- By Amazon Customer on 08-07-21
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American Civil Wars
- A Continental History, 1850-1873
- By: Alan Taylor
- Narrated by: Graham Winton
- Length: 17 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 28
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 25
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 25
The American Civil War stands at the center of the story, its military history and the drama of emancipation the highlights. Taylor relies on vivid characters to carry the story, from Joseph Hooker, whose timidity in crisis was exploited by Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson in the Union defeat at Chancellorsville, to Martin Delany and Mary Ann Shadd Cary, Black abolitionists whose critical work in Canada and the United States advanced emancipation and the enrollment of Black soldiers in Union armies.
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5 out of 5 stars
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fascinating!
- By Brandon Marken on 07-12-24
By: Alan Taylor
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Ministry of Truth
- Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past
- By: Steve Benen
- Narrated by: Rachel Maddow
- Length: 5 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 496
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 460
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Story5 out of 5 stars 460
For as long as historical records have existed, authoritarian regimes have tried to rewrite history to suit their purposes, using their dictatorial powers to create myths, spread propaganda, justify decisions, erase opponents, and even dispose of crimes. Today, as America’s Republican Party becomes increasingly radicalized, it’s not surprising to see the GOP read from a similarly despotic script. Indeed, the party is taking dangerous, aggressive steps to rewrite history—and not just from generations past.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Reinforced long held suspicions
- By Dennis M Olson Jr on 08-18-24
By: Steve Benen
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Wounded Knee
- Party Politics and the Road to an American Massacre
- By: Heather Cox Richardson
- Narrated by: Heather Cox Richardson
- Length: 15 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 42
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 37
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Story5 out of 5 stars 37
On December 29, 1890, American troops opened fire with howitzers on hundreds of unarmed Lakota Sioux men, women, and children near Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota, killing nearly 300 Sioux. As acclaimed historian Heather Cox Richardson shows in Wounded Knee, the massacre grew out of a set of political forces all too familiar to us today: fierce partisanship, heated political rhetoric, and an irresponsible, profit-driven media.
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5 out of 5 stars
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sad but important history
- By Margaret Bowser on 04-08-23
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Bad Law
- Ten Popular Laws That Are Ruining America
- By: Elie Mystal
- Narrated by: Elie Mystal
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 50
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 50
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Story5 out of 5 stars 50
The New York Times bestselling author brings his trademark legal acumen and passionate snark to offer a brilliant takedown of ten shocking pieces of legislation that continue to perpetuate hate, racial bias, injustice, and inequality today—an urgent yet hopeful story for our current political climate
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5 out of 5 stars
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my fav
- By Anonymous User on 04-02-25
By: Elie Mystal
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Revenge
- The Inside Story of Trump's Return to Power
- By: Alex Isenstadt
- Narrated by: Alan Peterson
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 64
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 62
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Story4 out of 5 stars 62
Over the course of the last four years, the American public looked on as the former president faced a series of daunting obstacles to return to the White House. The lingering cloud of January 6, a shadow effort within the Republican establishment to defeat him in the primary, multiple indictments, assassination attempts, and an 11th hour change of his opponent all threatened to derail his return to power at any moment.
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3 out of 5 stars
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contains lies already proven false!
- By Marvin on 03-25-25
By: Alex Isenstadt
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On Freedom
- By: Timothy Snyder
- Narrated by: Timothy Snyder
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 225
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 206
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 206
Timothy Snyder has been called “the leading interpreter of our dark times.” As a historian, he has given us startling reinterpretations of political collapse and mass killing. As a public intellectual, he has turned that knowledge toward counsel and prediction, working against authoritarianism here and abroad. His book On Tyranny has inspired millions around the world to fight for freedom. Now, in this tour de force of political philosophy, he helps us see exactly what we’re fighting for.
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1 out of 5 stars
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A disappointment
- By MichaelHb on 10-01-24
By: Timothy Snyder
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Autocracy, Inc.
- The Dictators Who Want to Run the World
- By: Anne Applebaum
- Narrated by: Anne Applebaum
- Length: 4 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 647
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 605
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 605
We think we know what an autocratic state looks like: There is an all-powerful leader at the top. He controls the police. The police threaten the people with violence. There are evil collaborators, and maybe some brave dissidents. But in the 21st century, that bears little resemblance to reality. Nowadays, autocracies are underpinned not by one dictator, but by sophisticated networks composed of kleptocratic financial structures, surveillance technologies, and professional propagandists, all of which operate across multiple regimes, from China to Russia to Iran.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Triumphant Work -Puts It All Together With Laser Clarity
- By Sjhoffman on 09-19-24
By: Anne Applebaum
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The Sirens' Call
- How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource
- By: Chris Hayes
- Narrated by: Chris Hayes
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 376
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 360
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 360
We all feel it—the distraction, the loss of focus, the addictive focus on the wrong things for too long. We bump into the zombies on their phones in the street, and sometimes they’re us. We stare in pity at the four people at the table in the restaurant, all on their phones, and then we feel the buzz in our pocket. Something has changed utterly: for most of human history, the boundary between public and private has been clear, at least in theory. Now, as Chris Hayes writes, “With the help of a few tech firms, we basically tore it down in about a decade.”
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5 out of 5 stars
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Thoughtful and captivating
- By Nancy on 02-02-25
By: Chris Hayes
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War
- By: Bob Woodward
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,034
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 905
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 905
Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Bob Woodward tells the revelatory, behind-the-scenes story of three wars—Ukraine, the Middle East and the struggle for the American Presidency. War provides an unvarnished examination of the vice president as she tries to embrace the Biden legacy and policies while beginning to chart a path of her own as a presidential candidate.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Draws Connections
- By Kyle on 10-18-24
By: Bob Woodward
What listeners say about The Presidents and the People
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Rebekah
- 07-10-24
Historical Context
It was refreshing to learn a little more about the current state of our nation with historical context and much less political bias than other media sources. I learned a lot from this book an ls would recommend it to anyone.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- SAOT66
- 07-29-24
Similar Presidencies to the Trump Era
History repeats. We can learn from prior history so as not to allow for the repeat and to act more quickly when we see the signs.
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