Nancy
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- votos útiles
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G-Man (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
- J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century
- De: Beverly Gage
- Narrado por: Gabra Zackman
- Duración: 36 h y 36 m
- Versión completa
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General4.5 out of 5 stars 622
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Narración:4.5 out of 5 stars 532
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Historia4.5 out of 5 stars 532
A major new biography of J Edgar Hoover that draws from never-before-seen sources to create a groundbreaking portrait of a colossus who dominated half a century of American history and planted the seeds for much of today's conservative political landscape.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Amazing!
- De Jessica Armas en 12-06-22
- G-Man (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
- J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century
- De: Beverly Gage
- Narrado por: Gabra Zackman
Less than balanced Hoover retrospective
Revisado: 11-17-23
Liked: extensive research and coverage of Hoover’s long years in government positions including almost 50 years as FBI Director. Liked: Very revealing information into his last years of despicable behavior and response of his subordinates to his increasingly erratic and vindictive behavior
Liked: pretty balanced epilogue especially noting Director Clarence Kelley’s apology and acknowledgment of the significant wrongdoing of Hoover’s later years. But I think she was harsh on Mark Felt implying that his pardon by Reagan was a right wing move. In fact Mark Felt was a hero by leaking the Watergate information to Woodward and Bernstein and seeking to curtail L Patrick Gray who Nixon appointed to replace Hoover so Nixon could manipulate the FBI. If not for Mark Felt Nixon’s illegal activity would not have been exposed. And Felt never tried to capitalize on this. The wiretappings carried out by Felt and others in the FBI at the time were ordered and sanctioned by the Department of Justice. It is good that in the aftermath of the Church hearings that Congress created the interagency covert cooperation and Congressional oversight that was needed and put limitations on wiretapping. But I think the author could have been fairer to Felt regarding his participation in operations that were not illegal at the time they took place. Other than that, I thought the epilogue was quite fair.
Disliked: Trying to tie everything to his upbringing and early adult affiliation with his racist fraternity Kappa Alpha as well as his clear homosexuality. There were too many instances of “he must have thought” or “he may have felt” drawing psychological conclusions that start to create an impression that is speculative on her part. An example is the discussion of the American Bund boys camps in the 1930s patterned after Nazi Youth camps. The author speculates that Hoover’s reluctance to take action against this movement may have been because he personally resonated with the racist and fraternity-like atmosphere of the camps rather than the fact that there was no federal jurisdiction or crime for such camps at the time. Similarly with his slowness to respond to violence in the Jim Crow south. Certainly his racist background affected his feelings but until Congress enacted the Civil Rights laws of the 1960s these crimes had no federal jurisdiction. That isn’t condoning his racism. What was also shocking though was that it wasn’t just Hoover who’s racism affected his actions but the racism of all the Presidents he worked for from Roosevelt to Nixon several of whom have escaped the racist legacy of Hoover and their own participation and orders to investigate Civil Rights leaders has been forgiven or forgotten. When the Civil Rights legislation passed in the 1960s Hoover created a Civil Rights Division at the FBI and went after the KKK. This doesn’t absolve him of his personal racist views and horrible vendetta against Martin Luther King. But the author paints with a broad brush her feelings about how Hoover must have felt about these issues. I do feel she was most accurate in her statements that the records showed his greatest motivation in his actions (before the MLK years and New Left Weather Underground years) was trying to protect the reputation of the FBI and trying to push back on Presidential overreach.
Disliked: the snarky way the author treated his homosexuality and relationship with Clyde Tolson. It seems pretty clear from several anecdotes that his own sexual orientation helped to keep the FBI from going after gay people the way the Presidents wanted him to. He protected several people close to the President and in the FBI from losing their jobs for their sexual orientation. The book seemed to imply in one sense that he was a hypocrite on gay issues while acknowledging that gay people would lose their government jobs if they came out or were exposed
Disliked: characterization of the National Academy training as “indoctrination” and centralized fingerprints as Hoover seeking to control local police. In fact the cooperation with local law enforcement and centralized forensics set the stage for the future ability of the FBI and local law enforcement to rapidly solve/the Anthrax mailings case and Boston Marathon bombings.
Disliked: the reader’s sinister tone
Summary: All in all a the book was quite the comprehensive review of a complex man. He certainly was no saint and definitely deserves to be exposed for the unforgivable excesses when he felt personally affronted or just using his power for pure hatred in his ugly personal surveillance and character attack on Dr King. But the author has some difficulty keeping it balanced in her personal dislike for the man.
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James Madison
- A Biography
- De: Ralph Ketcham
- Narrado por: Bill Burrows
- Duración: 38 h y 4 m
- Versión completa
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General4 out of 5 stars 74
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Narración:4 out of 5 stars 64
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Historia4.5 out of 5 stars 64
The best one-volume biography of Madison’s life, Ketcham’s biography not only traces Madison’s career, it gives listeners a sense of the man. As Madison said of his early years in Virginia under the study of Donald Robertson, who introduced him to thinkers like Montaigne and Montesquieu, "all that I have been in life I owe largely to that man." It also captures a side of Madison that is less rarely on display.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Narrator Too Robotic
- De Anonymous User en 09-20-21
- James Madison
- A Biography
- De: Ralph Ketcham
- Narrado por: Bill Burrows
A comprehensive biography
Revisado: 08-30-22
An excellent and comprehensive biography of this amazing man. Perhaps a bit of an apologist for his failure to free his slaves yet the author doesn’t gloss over it. The great contributions of James Madison and his relationships with other major figures of the early republic are well written. The reader has numerous mispronunciations which are a bit annoying.
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Powers and Thrones
- A New History of the Middle Ages
- De: Dan Jones
- Narrado por: Dan Jones
- Duración: 24 h y 25 m
- Versión completa
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General4.5 out of 5 stars 1,683
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Narración:5 out of 5 stars 1,453
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Historia5 out of 5 stars 1,447
When the once-mighty city of Rome was sacked by barbarians in 410 and lay in ruins, it signaled the end of an era—and the beginning of a thousand years of profound transformation. In a gripping narrative bursting with big names—from St Augustine and Attila the Hun to the Prophet Muhammad and Eleanor of Aquitaine—Dan Jones charges through the history of the Middle Ages. Powers and Thrones takes listeners on a journey through an emerging Europe, the great capitals of late Antiquity, as well as the influential cities of the Islamic West.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Hard to take a break from it!
- De Mariano's Music en 12-09-21
- Powers and Thrones
- A New History of the Middle Ages
- De: Dan Jones
- Narrado por: Dan Jones
Dan Jones writes history brilliantly
Revisado: 07-31-22
Dan Jones is a wonderful writer who makes the history of the Middle Ages come alive. The sections of the book with a focus on key groups including monks, knights, scholars, merchants and explorers create an understanding of the people and the social forces at work in such a thorough, but never tedious, way. The sidelight anecdotes about many fascinating characters such as El Cid, Leonardo DaVinci, Geoffrey Chaucer and many more, make the book enormously entertaining. Dan Jones has many excellent analogies of events in the Middle Ages to current events such as the explosion of information from the printing press to the internet in our own time. It is refreshing that he does not make apologies for history or try to preach its relevance to current events. He respects his audience to come to our own better informed insights. It is wonderful to listen to Dan Jones read his own book. Many authors are not good readers. But Dan Jones is an engaging reader with excellent diction, enthusiasm and humor. It was such a delight listening to this book. I did not want it to end but in his characteristic style he brought in an amazing quote (this one from Martin Luther) to let us know the time had come to wrap it up and bring the book to an end.
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