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Spinoza: Freedom's Messiah
- Jewish Lives
- Narrated by: Lee Beddow
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
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Publisher's summary
Ian Buruma explores the life and death of Baruch Spinoza, the Enlightenment thinker whose belief in freedom of thought and speech resonates in our own time
Baruch (Benedictus) Spinoza (1632-1677) was a radical free thinker who led a life guided by strong moral principles despite his disbelief in an all-seeing God. Seen by many as Satan's disciple during his lifetime, Spinoza has been regarded as a secular saint since his death. Many contradictory beliefs have been attached to his name: rationalism or metaphysics, atheism or pantheism, liberalism or despotism, Jewishness or anti-Semitism. However, there is no question that he viewed freedom of thought and speech as essential to an open and free society.
In this insightful account, the award-winning author Ian Buruma stresses the importance of the time and place that shaped Spinoza, beginning with the Sephardim of Amsterdam and followed by the politics of the Dutch Republic. Though Spinoza rejected the basic assumptions of his family's faith, and was consequently expelled from his Sephardic community, Buruma argues that Spinoza did indeed lead a modern Jewish life. To Heine, Hess, Marx, Freud, and no doubt many others today, Spinoza exemplified how to be Jewish without believing in Judaism. His defense of universal freedom is as important for our own time as it was in his.
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On a cold November day in Amsterdam in 2004, the celebrated and controversial Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was shot and killed by an Islamic extremist for making a movie that "insulted the prophet Mohammed." The murder sent shock waves across Europe and around the world. Shortly thereafter, Ian Buruma returned to his native land to investigate the event and its larger meaning as part of the great dilemma of our time.
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Self Indulgent twaddle
- By Jacob Arnon on 10-12-18
By: Ian Buruma
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The Spinoza Problem
- A Novel
- By: Irvin D. Yalom
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 14 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Internationally best-selling novelist Irvin D. Yalom explores the mindsets of two men separated by 300 years. Using his skills as a psychiatrist, he explores the inner lives of Baruch Spinoza, the Jewish 17th-century secular philosopher, and of Alfred Rosenberg, outspoken Nazi ideologue, faithful servant of Hitler, the main author of racial policy for the Third Reich, and a godless mass murderer....
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Loud, Modern, Imaginative with Catharsis
- By Marian on 04-22-19
By: Irvin D. Yalom
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Alfred Dreyfus: The Man at the Center of the Affair
- Jewish Lives Series
- By: Maurice Samuels
- Narrated by: Jason Grasl
- Length: 5 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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On January 5, 1895, Captain Alfred Dreyfus's cries of innocence were drowned out by a mob shouting "Death to Judas!" In this book, Maurice Samuels gives listeners new insight into Dreyfus himself—the man at the center of the affair. He tells the story of Dreyfus's early life in Paris, his promising career as a French officer, the false accusation leading to his imprisonment on Devil's Island, the fight to prove his innocence that divided the French nation, and his life of quiet obscurity after World War I.
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Good but there’s one serious fault
- By Nana Landgraf on 05-08-24
By: Maurice Samuels
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The Stoic Mindset
- Living the Ten Principles of Stoicism
- By: Mark Tuitert
- Narrated by: Mark Tuitert
- Length: 2 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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For twenty years, Mark Tuitert has used the principles of Stoic philosophy to become a gold-medal winning Olympic champion athlete, successful entrepreneur, as well as to deal with the challenges in his professional and private life. Now, in the internationally bestselling book The Stoic Mindset, Mark lays out the ten practical lessons through which everyone, in any situation, can develop a Stoic mindset.
By: Mark Tuitert
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Herod the Great
- Jewish King in a Roman World
- By: Martin Goodman
- Narrated by: Will Tulin
- Length: 6 hrs
- Unabridged
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A vivid account of the political triumphs and domestic tragedies of the Jewish king Herod the Great during the turmoil of the Roman revolution.
By: Martin Goodman
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Maimonides
- Faith in Reason
- By: Alberto Manguel
- Narrated by: John Lescault
- Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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In this biography of Maimonides, the medieval philosopher, physician, and religious thinker, Alberto Manguel examines the question of his universal appeal. Moses ben Maimon, or Maimonides (1138–1204), was born in Córdoba, Spain. The gifted son of a judge and mathematician, Maimonides fled Córdoba with his family when he was thirteen due to Almohad persecution of all non-Islamic faiths. Forced into a long exile, the family spent a decade in Spain before settling in Morocco. From there, Maimonides traveled to Palestine and Egypt, where he died at Saladin’s court.
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A Valuable Overview
- By J. Lynch on 04-30-24
By: Alberto Manguel
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Muse of Fire
- World War I as Seen Through the Lives of the Soldier Poets
- By: Michael Korda
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 13 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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With Muse of Fire, Michael Korda, the bestselling author of Alone and Hero, takes a novel approach to World War I by telling its history through the lives of the soldier-poets whose verses memorialize the war's unimaginable horrors. He begins with Rupert Brooke and the halcyon days before violence engulfed his generation—destroying the self-contented world of Edwardian England—and ends with the tragic death of Wilfred Owen, killed only days before the armistice brought an end to a war that took over 25,000,000 lives.
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Very Compelling
- By Fred G on 05-20-24
By: Michael Korda
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Losing and Finding My Virginity: The Full Story
- By: Richard Branson
- Narrated by: Richard Branson
- Length: 27 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Available exclusively in audio, Losing and Finding My Virginity is both of Sir Richard Branson’s multi-million-copy bestselling autobiographies in one combined edition, fully revised and updated, and read for you by the author in full for the first time.
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Great Book
- By Gary Miller on 05-03-24
By: Richard Branson
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The Wide Wide Sea
- Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook
- By: Hampton Sides
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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On July 12th, 1776, Captain James Cook, already lionized as the greatest explorer in British history, set off on his third voyage in his ship the HMS Resolution. Two-and-a-half years later, on a beach on the island of Hawaii, Cook was killed in a conflict with native Hawaiians. How did Cook, who was unique among captains for his respect for Indigenous peoples and cultures, come to that fatal moment? Hampton Sides’ bravura account of Cook’s last journey both wrestles with Cook’s legacy and provides a thrilling narrative of the titanic efforts and continual danger that characterized exploration.
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A gripping sea adventure, wish there was more.
- By Katherine on 04-13-24
By: Hampton Sides
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Takeover
- Hitler's Final Rise to Power
- By: Timothy W. Ryback
- Narrated by: Richard Attlee
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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In the summer of 1932, the Weimar Republic was on the verge of collapse. One in three Germans was unemployed. Violence was rampant. Hitler’s National Socialists surged at the polls. Paul von Hindenburg, an aging war hero and avowed monarchist, was a reluctant president bound by oath to uphold the constitution. The November elections offered Hitler the prospect of a Reichstag majority and the path to political power. But instead, the Nazis lost two million votes.
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how even those from whom so little could be expected can mold history
- By Doug Easterling on 04-19-24
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Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent
- By: Judi Dench, Brendan O'Hea
- Narrated by: Barbara Flynn, Brendan O'Hea, Judi Dench
- Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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For the very first time, Judi opens up about every Shakespearean role she has played throughout her seven-decade career, from Lady Macbeth and Titania to Ophelia and Cleopatra. In a series of intimate conversations with actor & director Brendan O'Hea, she guides us through Shakespeare's plays with incisive clarity, revealing the secrets of her rehearsal process and inviting us to share in her triumphs, disasters, and backstage shenanigans.
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Perfect for fans of Shakespeare
- By Richard A. Nathan on 04-24-24
By: Judi Dench, and others
What listeners say about Spinoza: Freedom's Messiah
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- tw22
- 04-21-24
Very good book, but
too many mispronunciations, such as ‘disassemble’ for ‘dissemble’. The voice itself is quite fine, and maybe it is conventional in the UK to Anglicize words from Dutch, Hebrew, and German; I found it distracting
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