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The Unwinding
- An Inner History of the New America
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 18 hrs and 4 mins
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Publisher's summary
National Book Award, Nonfiction, 2013
A riveting examination of a nation in crisis, from one of the finest political journalists of our generation. American democracy is beset by a sense of crisis. Seismic shifts during a single generation have created a country of winners and losers, allowing unprecedented freedom while rending the social contract, driving the political system to the verge of breakdown, and setting citizens adrift to find new paths forward. In The Unwinding, George Packer, author of The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq, tells the story of the United States over the past three decades in an utterly original way, with his characteristically sharp eye for detail and gift for weaving together complex narratives.
The Unwinding journeys through the lives of several Americans, including Dean Price, the son of tobacco farmers, who becomes an evangelist for a new economy in the rural South; Tammy Thomas, a factory worker in the Rust Belt trying to survive the collapse of her city; Jeff Connaughton, a Washington insider oscillating between political idealism and the lure of organized money; and Peter Thiel, a Silicon Valley billionaire who questions the Internet’s significance and arrives at a radical vision of the future.
Packer interweaves these intimate stories with biographical sketches of the era’s leading public figures, from Newt Gingrich to Jay-Z, and collages made from newspaper headlines, advertising slogans, and song lyrics that capture the flow of events and their undercurrents. The Unwinding portrays a superpower in danger of coming apart at the seams, its elites no longer elite, its institutions no longer working, its ordinary people left to improvise their own schemes for success and salvation. Packer’s novelistic and kaleidoscopic history of the new America is his most ambitious work to date. Includes bonus content read by the author.
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Ho Hum....being rich is work!
- By Scarlett on 06-16-07
By: Robert Frank
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High-Risers
- Cabrini-Green and the Fate of American Public Housing
- By: Ben Austen
- Narrated by: Ron Butler
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Built in the 1940s atop an infamous Italian slum, Cabrini-Green grew to 23 towers and a population of 20,000 - all of it packed onto just 70 acres a few blocks from Chicago's ritzy Gold Coast. Cabrini-Green became synonymous with crime, squalor, and the failure of government. For the many who lived there, it was also a much-needed resource - it was home. By 2011, every high-rise had been razed, the island of black poverty engulfed by the white affluence around it, the families dispersed.
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Little mention of accountability of the people getting the housing
- By Steve D Renz on 05-15-18
By: Ben Austen
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Strange Stones
- By: Peter Hessler
- Narrated by: George Backman
- Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Full of unforgettable figures and an unrelenting spirit of adventure, Strange Stones is a far-ranging, thought-provoking collection of Peter Hessler’s best reportage - a dazzling display of the powerful storytelling, shrewd cultural insight, and warm sense of humor that are the trademarks of his work. Over the last decade, as a staff writer for The New Yorker and the author of three books, Peter Hessler has lived in Asia and the United States, writing as both native and knowledgeable outsider in these two very different regions.
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funny, entertaining
- By Katherine on 08-02-13
By: Peter Hessler
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The Working Poor
- Invisible in America
- By: David K. Shipler
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 15 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Nobody who works hard should be poor in America, writes Pulitzer Prize-winner David Shipler. Clear-headed, rigorous, and compassionate, he journeys deeply into the lives of individual store clerks and factory workers, farm laborers and sweat-shop seamstresses, illegal immigrants in menial jobs and Americans saddled with immense student loans and paltry wages. They are known as the working poor.
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Textbook Perfect Discussion of the Problem
- By Cynthia on 07-28-12
By: David K. Shipler
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Age of Ambition
- Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China
- By: Evan Osnos
- Narrated by: Evan Osnos, George Backman
- Length: 16 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
As the Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker, Evan Osnos was on the ground in China for years, witness to profound political, economic, and cultural upheaval. In Age of Ambition, he describes the greatest collision taking place in that country: the clash between the rise of the individual and the Communist Party’s struggle to retain control.
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Come back when you have a warrant!
- By Neuron on 11-06-15
By: Evan Osnos
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The Path to Power
- The Years of Lyndon Johnson
- By: Robert A. Caro
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 40 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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This is the story of the rise to national power of a desperately poor young man from the Texas Hill Country. The Path to Power reveals in extraordinary detail the genesis of the almost superhuman drive, energy, and ambition that set LBJ apart. It follows him from the Hill Country to New Deal Washington, from his boyhood through the years of the Depression to his debut as Congressman, his heartbreaking defeat in his first race for the Senate, and his attainment, nonetheless, at age 31, of the national power for which he hungered.
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The Best of all Biographies
- By David C. Daggett on 12-14-13
By: Robert A. Caro
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Sellout
- How Washington Gave Away America's Technological Soul, and One Man's Fight to Bring It Home
- By: Victoria Bruce
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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American technological prowess used to be unrivaled. But because of globalization, and with the blessing of the US government, once proprietary materials, components, and technologies are increasingly commercialized outside the United States. Nowhere is this more dangerous than in China's monopoly of rare earth elements - materials that are essential for nearly all modern consumer goods, gadgets, and weapons systems.
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Uncovering unsung heroes of modern America
- By Ben DeNardo on 08-24-17
By: Victoria Bruce
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The King of Content
- Sumner Redstone’s Battle for Viacom, CBS, and Everlasting Control of His Media Empire
- By: Keach Hagey
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Sumner Murray Redstone, once feared as the “mad genius” of media who would dump his CEOs for mere wobbles in his companies’ stock price, had built one of the world’s greatest media empires through a series of audacious takeovers constructed to ensure that he always maintained control. Today he controls 80 percent of the voting shares of both Viacom and CBS, meaning that on a whim he could replace the entire boards of two public companies with a combined value of $40 billion.
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Feels biased. Well researched, but not engaging.
- By Anonymous User on 04-03-19
By: Keach Hagey
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Mike Bloomberg
- Money, Power, Politics
- By: Joyce Purnick
- Narrated by: Mark Moseley
- Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Michael Bloomberg is not only New York City's 108th mayor; he is a business genius and self-made billionaire. He has run the toughest city in America with an independence and show of ego that first brought him great success and eventually threatened it. Yet while Bloomberg is internationally known and admired, few people know the man behind the carefully crafted public persona.
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Not the most captivating, but a decent summary
- By liz w on 03-06-17
By: Joyce Purnick
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The Great Revolt
- Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics
- By: Salena Zito, Brad Todd
- Narrated by: Bob Hess
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Standout syndicated columnist and CNN contributor Salena Zito, with veteran Republican strategist Brad Todd, reports across five swing states and over 27,000 miles to answer the pressing question: Was Donald Trump's election a fluke or did it represent a fundamental shift in the electorate that will have repercussions - for Republicans and Democrats - for years to come.
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Explaining Trump's 2016 presidential victory
- By Wayne on 05-10-18
By: Salena Zito, and others
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The Oligarchs
- Wealth and Power in the New Russia
- By: David Hoffman
- Narrated by: Steve Coulter
- Length: 22 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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A brilliant investigative narrative: How six average Soviet men rose to the pinnacle of Russia's battered economy. David Hoffman, former Moscow bureau chief for
The Washington Post, sheds light onto the hidden lives of Russia's most feared power brokers: the oligarchs. Focusing on six of these ruthless men Hoffman reveals how a few players managed to take over Russia's cash-strapped economy and then divvy it up in loans-for-shares deals.
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Supreme Chronicle of Murky Times
- By ivan on 03-01-14
By: David Hoffman
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America, says Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Chris Hedges, is convulsed by an array of pathologies that have arisen out of profound hopelessness, a bitter despair and a civil society that has ceased to function. The opioid crisis, the retreat into gambling to cope with economic distress, the pornification of culture, the rise of magical thinking, the celebration of sadism, hate, and plagues of suicides are the physical manifestations of a society that is being ravaged by corporate pillage and a failed democracy. All these ills presage a frightening reconfiguration of the nation and the planet.
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Six close friends shaped the role their country would play in the dangerous years following World War II. They were the original best and brightest, whose towering intellects, outsize personalities, and dramatic actions would bring order to the postwar chaos, and whose strong response to Soviet expansionism would leave a legacy that dominates American policy to this day. In April 1945, they converged to advise an untutored new president, Harry Truman.
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Modern Dictators & President who wants to be them
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I have lived this experience and failed badly.
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The Age of Grievance
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The twists and turns of American politics are unpredictable, but the tone is a troubling given. It’s one of grievance. More and more Americans are convinced that they’re losing because somebody else is winning. More and more tally their slights, measure their misfortune, and assign particular people responsibility for it. The blame game has become the country’s most popular sport and victimhood its most fashionable garb.
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This book lacks intellectual depth in its narrative.
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What listeners say about The Unwinding
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Performance
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- R. Bolster
- 02-14-17
I was shocked,
And couldn't stop listening. It just makes so much sense. I love the USA but I am so sad to see this happening.
Then again, great story and great author.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Doug Beckwith
- 02-14-17
Truly insightful and vitally important!
But I'm extremely horrified to suspect the people who NEED to read this book never will.
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2 people found this helpful
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Story
- Diane Jones
- 05-21-20
Great Reading
Enjoyed these themes and personal histories of people going through the financial crisis of '08-'09
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- pagesix
- 09-02-13
Amazing reportage that approaches high art
Any additional comments?
Nostalgia, reality, mean streets ... the cumulative sweep and power of this book knocked me out. Dozens of interwoven characters, themes, as challenging as the best of mysteries. How did we wind up in a landscape of fast food and bad vibes? The clues are all here.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Randall S. Witt
- 10-23-16
somewhat disjointed and never pulled together
as noted in the title, this book is somewhat disjointed. 1 struggles to find the actual meaning behind the authors ramblings story or should I say stories. The highlight of this book is the performance. if I had to read it on a paper page or Kindle, it would have been a struggle to get through.
I would recommend other books on a similar topic well before this one.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Barbara Kautz
- 01-19-17
Great Explanation of What Became the Trump Phenomenon - Pre-Trump
Through anecdote and analysis, great explanation of the 'unwinding' of America due to the Great Recession, de-industrialization, rise of the Tea Party. Book ends about 2011-12 but is still relevant.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Blue Tooth
- 01-03-15
Wonder how it's going to end.
As a collection of stories about the lives of ordinary people, it paints a pretty vivid picture of how we have arrived at this point in time. One wonders how we can undo the grim momentum of greed and ignorance. Maybe books like this can help more Americans understand our current predicament.
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- Frederick Henry
- 04-14-20
Unique weaving of stories both famous and not.
I enjoyed this book and debated on the overall rating. Its strong points are that the author skillfully weaves the stories of Americans:both famous (Gingrich, Colin Powell, Joe Biden, Oprah), and not (Dean Price and Tammy Thomas). He is at his best in telling the story of Tammy Thomas, born into relative poverty and a troubled family in Youngstown, Ohio, as that city withered away. Tammy's story is inspirational.
Packer is clearly sympathetic to Democrat's and disdainful of Republicans (he writes for The New Yorker, and Atlantic), but to his credit, unlike many (most) partisans, he seems to have a genuine interest in understanding those who feel differently. The one Republican (nominative) that gets a fawning treatment is Colin Powell, whom he seems to completely excuse for his role in the WMD UN speech. Newt Gingrich and Andrew Breitbart are skewered.
By the same token, not all Democrats escape criticism. Obama, for instance is implicitly criticized for what he failed to do, compared to what he ran on, and his essential sell-out to Wall Street and bowing to insiders like Summers and Geithner (my words, not Packer's, he was softer, but that was the conclusion one gets from what he wrote through his real life characters).
The Democrat who comes across the worst, ironically is the presumptive 2020 Democrat nominee for President, Joe Biden. His story largely is told through the person of Jeff Connaughton, who was first enamored of then Senator Biden, when he invited him to speak at the University of Alabama, while still a student. Connaughton went on to work on Biden's first and second Presidential campaign, as well as a senate campaign (he also worked in the Clinton White House). Over time Connaughton became disillusioned with Biden, describing him as a man who eventually disappointed everyone, and came to see him as lacking in substance. Elizabeth Warren, on the other hand comes across as almost saintly.
Another interesting profile is that of venture capitalist, and libertarian, Peter Thiel.
The reader was good, though his inflections and style when giving what appeared to be direct quotes from people seemed to also exacerbate a left-leaning bias of the author, that may not have been so pronounced if one were reading, rather than listening to the book. There are several more people profiled than what I have mentioned in this review and this was an interesting way to tell the story of America from the 1970's thru 2012. In fact in the course of reflecting on the book while creating this review, I have changed my original rating from 2 to 3 stars.
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- Janet Pittman Henley
- 05-27-13
Can't understand the low ratings!
I am not a writer of reviews, but I could not let the low ratings for this book stand unopposed! In "The Unwinding," George Packer follows the lives of a variety of people, as a way to clarify wildly opposing viewpoints about what has happened in American society this last century. Here is history told as vividly as the best fiction, and it won my sympathy for people I would be unlikely to meet. A few high-profile people (like Oprah) come into the narrative. But some of the most revealing chapters cover U.S. citizens who seek meaning and success, work hard, "do everything right," and rarely make the headlines. I would recommend this book wholeheartedly to anyone, with any political belief, who is trying to make sense of what it means to live in the U.S.A.!
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38 people found this helpful
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- Larry
- 04-14-16
Brilliant!
Everyone should listen to this book. Right AND left. Perfect description and history of the evisceration of the US middle class by the elected and non-elected powers that be in the US. Makes the solutions obvious. A brilliant, subtle, "come together" theme.
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7 people found this helpful