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The Jeffersonians
- The Visionary Presidencies of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe
- Narrated by: Matthew Josdal
- Length: 25 hrs and 45 mins
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The Jeffersonians
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Publisher's summary
Before the consecutive two-term administrations of Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, there had only been one other trio of its type: Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe.
Kevin R. C. Gutzman's The Jeffersonians is a complete chronicle of the men who served as president from 1801 to 1825 and implemented the foreign policy, domestic, and constitutional agenda of the radical wing of the American Revolution, setting guideposts for later American liberals to follow.
The three close political allies were tightly related: Jefferson and Madison were the closest of friends, and Monroe was Jefferson's former law student. Their achievements were many, including the founding of the opposition Republican Party in the 1790s; the Louisiana Purchase; and the call upon Congress in 1806 to use its constitutional power to ban slave imports.
Of course, not everything the Virginia Dynasty undertook was a success: Its chief failure might have been the ineptly planned and led War of 1812. Kevin R. C. Gutzman's new book details a time in America when three Presidents worked toward common goals to strengthen our Republic in a way we rarely see in American politics today.
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Plain, Honest Men
- The Making of the American Constitution
- By: Richard Beeman
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 19 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 214
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 163
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 161
The Constitutional Convention affected nothing less than a revolution in the nature of the American government. Led by James Madison, a small cohort of delegates devised a plan that would radically alter the balance of power between state and national governments, and then sprung that idea on a largely unsuspecting convention.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Grand Narrative
- By Maddie49 on 10-12-11
By: Richard Beeman
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Fears of a Setting Sun
- The Disillusionment of America's Founders
- By: Dennis C. Rasmussen
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 91
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 78
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 78
Americans seldom deify their Founding Fathers any longer, but they do still tend to venerate the Constitution and the republican government that the founders created. Strikingly, the founders themselves were far less confident in what they had wrought, particularly by the end of their lives. In fact, most of them - including George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson - came to deem America's constitutional experiment an utter failure that was unlikely to last beyond their own generation.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A different perspective on the founders
- By kpa on 03-04-24
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Lincoln's Mentors
- The Education of a Leader
- By: Michael J. Gerhardt
- Narrated by: James Lurie
- Length: 17 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 36
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 31
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Story5 out of 5 stars 32
A novel and brilliant look at how Abraham Lincoln mastered the art of leadership: acclaimed historian Michael J. Gerhardt, who appeared during the impeachment proceedings of President Trump, reveals how a group of five men mentored an obscure lawyer with no executive experience to become American’s greatest leader
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5 out of 5 stars
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Interesting book
- By Brian on 03-07-21
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The Birth of Modern Politics
- Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and the Election of 1828
- By: Lynn Hudson Parson
- Narrated by: Milton Bagby
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 84
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 65
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Story4 out of 5 stars 66
The 1828 presidential election, which pitted Major General Andrew Jackson against incumbent John Quincy Adams, has long been hailed as a watershed moment in American political history. It was the contest in which an unlettered, hot-tempered southwestern frontiersman, trumpeted by his supporters as a genuine man of the people, soundly defeated a New England "aristocrat" whose education and political resume were as impressive as any ever seen in American public life.
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4 out of 5 stars
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a very good popular history book
- By D. Littman on 01-29-10
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The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Founding Fathers
- By: Brion McClanahan Ph. D.
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 378
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 297
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 296
Here to rescue the reputations of our Founding Fathers from the plague of modern political correctness is The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Founding Fathers. Author and Professor Brion McClanahan shows how patriots like Franklin, Madison, and Hamilton laid the foundations of American civil liberty and had a better understanding of the problems facing us today than our current Congress.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Highly Recommended
- By Colleen H. on 08-13-09
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John Tyler, the Accidental President
- By: Edward P. Crapol
- Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray
- Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 169
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 153
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Story4 out of 5 stars 152
The first vice president to become president on the death of the incumbent, John Tyler (1790-1862) was derided by critics as "His Accidency." In this biography of the 10th president, Edward P. Crapol challenges depictions of Tyler as a die-hard advocate of states' rights, limited government, and a strict interpretation of the Constitution. Instead, he argues, Tyler manipulated the Constitution to increase the executive power of the presidency. Crapol also highlights Tyler's faith in America's national destiny and his belief in boundless territorial expansion.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Terrible book :( Incredibly TEDIOUS.
- By Mike on 10-02-19
By: Edward P. Crapol
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Franklin & Washington
- The Founding Partnership
- By: Edward J. Larson
- Narrated by: Andrew Tell
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 115
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 96
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 95
Today the United States is the world’s great superpower, and yet we also wrestle with the government Franklin and Washington created more than two centuries ago - the power of the executive branch, the principle of checks and balances, the electoral college - as well as the wounds of their compromise over slavery. Now, as the founding institutions appear under new stress, it is time to understand their origins through the fresh lens of Larson’s Franklin & Washington, a major addition to the literature of the founding era.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Two together, written about at same time
- By fair & balanced on 03-28-21
By: Edward J. Larson
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Founding Fathers
- A Captivating Guide to Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Jay, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and James Monroe
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Desmond Manny, Jason R. Gray, David Patton, and others
- Length: 26 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 28
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 22
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Story4 out of 5 stars 21
Explore the captivating lives of the Founding Fathers. Eight captivating manuscripts in one audiobook. So if you want to learn more about the life of Founding Fathers, get this audiobook now!
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2 out of 5 stars
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filled with inaccuracies
- By Eben on 04-13-22
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James Madison
- America's First Politician
- By: Jay Cost
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 14 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 98
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 81
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 81
How do you solve a problem like James Madison? The fourth president is one of the most confounding figures in early American history; his political trajectory seems almost intentionally inconsistent. He was both for and against a strong federal government. He wrote about the dangers of political parties in the Federalist Papers and then helped to found the Republican Party just a few years later. This so-called Madison problem has occupied scholars for ages.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Good listen
- By James Shannon on 06-27-22
By: Jay Cost
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John Adams
- A Captivating Guide to an American Founding Father Who Served as the Second President of the United States of America
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Jaimie Peters
- Length: 2 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 4
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4
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Story5 out of 5 stars 4
John Adams once wrote, “People and nations are forged in the fires of adversity.” That was very much Adams’ experience. Having been born in the English colony of Massachusetts in 1735, he not only witnessed a new nation emerging from the shell of infancy, but he also participated in its growing pains. Adams was a man who was frequently asked to assume roles in which he had little experience, like that of a diplomat to France and England. In a sense, he was a part of the vanguard that the government had thrown into the fray.
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The Words That Made Us
- America's Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840
- By: Akhil Reed Amar
- Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi
- Length: 27 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 79
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 72
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 72
In The Words That Made Us, Akhil Reed Amar unites history and law in a vivid narrative of the biggest constitutional questions early Americans confronted, and he expertly assesses the answers they offered. His account of the document's origins and consolidation is a guide for anyone seeking to properly understand America's Constitution today.
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5 out of 5 stars
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And the words that made Us
- By Anonymous User on 10-17-22
By: Akhil Reed Amar
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Ratification
- The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788
- By: Pauline Maier
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 23 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 147
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 108
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 109
When the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia adjourned late in the summer of 1787, the delegates returned to their states to report on the new Constitution, which had to be ratified by specially elected conventions in at least nine states. Pauline Maier recounts the dramatic events of the ensuing debate in homes, taverns, and convention halls, drawing generously on the speeches and letters of founding fathers, both familiar and forgotten, on all sides.
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4 out of 5 stars
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History Always Repeats
- By Howard on 08-27-11
By: Pauline Maier
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A Magnificent Catastrophe
- The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America's First Presidential Campaign
- By: Edward J. Larson
- Narrated by: John Dossett
- Length: 6 hrs
- Abridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 58
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 44
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Story4 out of 5 stars 44
A Magnificent Catastrophe tells the story of the most perverse, bizarre, nail-biting, and influential election battle ever in U.S. history: America's first true presidential campaign, and a contest so important to the future of the country that Jefferson referred to it as "the second American Revolution" because the outcome resolved so much unfinished business about just what kind of government we would have. This election in many ways determined just how democratic a country we would be.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Get this if you have to use it for a class!!!
- By Gabriel on 03-03-17
By: Edward J. Larson
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James Madison
- By: Richard Brookhiser
- Narrated by: Norman Dietz
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 263
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 224
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Story4 out of 5 stars 223
Eminent historian Richard Brookhiser presents a vivid portrait of James Madison, the “Father of the Constitution” and one of America's greatest statesmen.
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4 out of 5 stars
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OK book but not a biography
- By Joel Mayer on 08-05-12
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