Discover the Best Audio Stories in Biography & Memoir, Law & Politics

No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy: The Life of General James Mattis by Jim Proser

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/329977 [https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/329977] to listen full audiobooks. Title: No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy: The Life of General James Mattis Author: Jim Proser Narrator: Joe Barrett Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 7 hours 52 minutes Release date: August 7, 2018 Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4.63 of Total 27 Ratings of Narrator: 4 of Total 6 Genres: Law & Politics Publisher's Summary: The first in-depth look at the marine hero who has become one of the most beloved and admired men in America today: Secretary of Defense James Mattis. A devout student of history and erudite reader revered by rank and file soldiers, officers, academics, politicians, and ordinary citizens, General James Mattis is one of the most admired leaders serving America today. A man who has long used his position as a model for the soldiers he leads, Mattis in 2003 shared a ''Message to All Hands'' with the men and women under his command, outlining their responsibilities as soldiers of the corps. Emphasizing the importance of the mission and the goal to act with honor, Mattis ended with the motto he had adopted from another great figure, Roman general Lucius Cornelius Sulla: ''Demonstrate to the world that there is ‘No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy’ than a US Marine.'' The first Trump presidential cabinet nominee, Mattis, retired from activity military duty for only three years at the time, received a rare Congressional waiver to hold the civilian position of Secretary of Defense, and in the hyper-partisan political atmosphere of 2017, astonishingly received nearly unanimous, bipartisan support for his nomination. After months of headline-making chaos involving the White House, Mattis remains one of the few widely revered members of the Trump administration. In this illuminating biography, Jim Proser looks beyond Mattis’ professional competence to focus on the driving element behind Mattis’ success: his unimpeachable character—a formidable personal integrity that fosters universal confidence. Proser carefully examines the events of Mattis’ life and career to reveal a man who leads with insight, humor, fighting courage, and fierce compassion—not only for his fellow Marines, but for the innocent victims of war. Chronicling how Mattis’ martial and personal values have elevated him to the highest levels of personal success and earned him the trust of a nation, Proser makes clear how America is stronger because of his service and his example.

First in Line: Presidents, Vice Presidents, and the Pursuit of Power by Kate Andersen Brower

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/329978 [https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/329978] to listen full audiobooks. Title: First in Line: Presidents, Vice Presidents, and the Pursuit of Power Author: Kate Andersen Brower Narrator: Fred Sanders Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 10 hours 58 minutes Release date: June 5, 2018 Ratings: Ratings of Book: 3.83 of Total 6 Ratings of Narrator: 5 of Total 1 Genres: Law & Politics Publisher's Summary: From the author of the New York Times bestsellers First Women and The Residence, an intimate, news-making look at the men who are next in line to the most powerful office in the world—the vice presidents of the modern era—from Richard Nixon to Joe Biden to Mike Pence. Vice presidents occupy a unique and important position, living partway in the spotlight and part in the wings. Of the forty-seven vice presidents who have served the United States, fourteen have become president; eight of these have risen to the Oval Office because of a president’s death or assassination, and one became president after his boss’s resignation. John Nance Garner, FDR’s first vice president, famously said the vice presidency is ''not worth a bucket of warm piss'' (later cleaned up to ''warm spit''). But things have changed dramatically in recent years. In interviews with more than two hundred people, including former vice presidents, their family members, and insiders and confidants of every president since Jimmy Carter, Kate Andersen Brower pulls back the curtain and reveals the sometimes cold, sometimes close, and always complicated relationship between our modern presidents and their vice presidents. Brower took us inside the lives of the White House staff and gave us an intimate look at the modern First Ladies; now, in her signature style, she introduces us to the second most powerful men in the world, exploring the lives and roles of thirteen modern vice presidents—eight Republicans and five Democrats. And she shares surprising revelations about the relationship between former Vice President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama and how Vice President Mike Pence and President Donald Trump interact behind closed doors. From rivals to coworkers, there is a very tangible sense of admiration mixed with jealousy and resentment in nearly all these relationships between the number two and his boss, even the best ones, Brower reveals. Vice presidents owe their position to the president, a connection that affects not only how they are perceived but also their possible future as a presidential candidate—which is tied, for better or worse, to the president they serve. George H. W. Bush and Ronald Reagan had a famously prickly relationship during the 1980 primary, yet Bush would not have been elected president in 1988 without Reagan’s high approval rating. Al Gore’s 2000 loss, meanwhile, could be attributed to the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal and Bill Clinton’s impeachment. Current Vice President Mike Pence is walking a high-stakes political tightrope as he tries to reassure anxious Republicans while staying on his boss’s good side. This rich dynamic between the president and the vice president has never been fully explored or understood. Compelling and deeply reported, grounded in history and politics, and full of previously untold and incredibly personal stories, First In Line pierces the veil of secrecy enveloping this historic political office to offer us a candid portrait of what it’s truly like to be a heartbeat away.

Three Days in Moscow: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of the Soviet Empire by Catherine Whitney, Bret Baier

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/329969 [https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/329969] to listen full audiobooks. Title: Three Days in Moscow: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of the Soviet Empire Series: Part of Three Days Series Author: Catherine Whitney, Bret Baier Narrator: Bret Baier Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 12 hours 37 minutes Release date: May 15, 2018 Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4.58 of Total 26 Ratings of Narrator: 5 of Total 4 Genres: Law & Politics Publisher's Summary: President Reagan's dramatic battle to win the Cold War is revealed as never before by the #1 bestselling author and award-winning anchor of the #1 rated Special Report with Bret Baier. 'An instant classic, if not the finest book to date on Ronald Reagan.” — Jay Winik Moscow, 1988: 1,000 miles behind the Iron Curtain, Ronald Reagan stood for freedom and confronted the Soviet empire.  In his acclaimed bestseller Three Days in January, Bret Baier illuminated the extraordinary leadership of President Dwight Eisenhower at the dawn of the Cold War. Now in his highly anticipated new history, Three Days in Moscow, Baier explores the dramatic endgame of America’s long struggle with the Soviet Union and President Ronald Reagan’s central role in shaping the world we live in today. On May 31, 1988, Reagan stood on Russian soil and addressed a packed audience at Moscow State University, delivering a remarkable—yet now largely forgotten—speech that capped his first visit to the Soviet capital. This fourth in a series of summits between Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, was a dramatic coda to their tireless efforts to reduce the nuclear threat. More than that, Reagan viewed it as “a grand historical moment”: an opportunity to light a path for the Soviet people—toward freedom, human rights, and a future he told them they could embrace if they chose. It was the first time an American president had given an address about human rights on Russian soil. Reagan had once called the Soviet Union an “evil empire.” Now, saying that depiction was from “another time,” he beckoned the Soviets to join him in a new vision of the future. The importance of Reagan’s Moscow speech was largely overlooked at the time, but the new world he spoke of was fast approaching; the following year, in November 1989, the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union began to disintegrate, leaving the United States the sole superpower on the world stage. Today, the end of the Cold War is perhaps the defining historical moment of the past half century, and must be understood if we are to make sense of America’s current place in the world, amid the re-emergence of US-Russian tensions during Vladimir Putin’s tenure. Using Reagan’s three days in Moscow to tell the larger story of the president’s critical and often misunderstood role in orchestrating a successful, peaceful ending to the Cold War, Baier illuminates the character of one of our nation’s most venerated leaders—and reveals the unique qualities that allowed him to succeed in forming an alliance for peace with the Soviet Union, when his predecessors had fallen short.

Young Washington: How Wilderness and War Forged America's Founding Father by Peter Stark

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/329944 [https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/329944] to listen full audiobooks. Title: Young Washington: How Wilderness and War Forged America's Founding Father Author: Peter Stark Narrator: Malcolm Hillgartner Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 15 hours 32 minutes Release date: May 1, 2018 Ratings: Ratings of Book: 5 of Total 1 Genres: Law & Politics Publisher's Summary: A vivid and groundbreaking portrait of a young, struggling George Washington that casts a new light on his character and the history of American independence, from the bestselling author of Astoria Two decades before he led America to independence, George Washington was a flailing young soldier serving the British Empire in the vast wilderness of the Ohio Valley. Naive and self-absorbed, the twenty-two-year-old officer accidentally ignited the French and Indian War—a conflict that opened colonists to the possibility of an American Revolution. With powerful narrative drive and vivid writing, Young Washington recounts the wilderness trials, controversial battles, and emotional entanglements that transformed Washington from a temperamental striver into a mature leader. Enduring terrifying summer storms and subzero winters imparted resilience and self-reliance, helping prepare him for what he would one day face at Valley Forge. Leading the Virginia troops into battle taught him to set aside his own relentless ambitions and stand in solidarity with those who looked to him for leadership. Negotiating military strategy with British and colonial allies honed his diplomatic skills. And thwarted in his obsessive, youthful love for one woman, he grew to cultivate deeper, enduring relationships.    By weaving together Washington’s harrowing wilderness adventures and a broader historical context, Young Washington offers new insights into the dramatic years that shaped the man who shaped a nation.

Eunice: The Kennedy Who Changed the World by Eileen McNamara

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/330025 [https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/330025] to listen full audiobooks. Title: Eunice: The Kennedy Who Changed the World Author: Eileen McNamara Narrator: Amanda Carlin Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 15 hours 40 minutes Release date: April 3, 2018 Ratings: Ratings of Book: 3.5 of Total 2 Genres: Law & Politics Publisher's Summary: In this “revelation” of a biography (USA TODAY), a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist examines the life and times of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, arguing she left behind the Kennedy family’s most profound political legacy. While Joe Kennedy was grooming his sons for the White House and the Senate, his Stanford-educated daughter, Eunice, was hijacking her father’s fortune and her brothers’ political power to engineer one of the great civil rights movements of our time on behalf of millions of children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Her compassion was born of rage: at the medical establishment that had no answers for her sister Rosemary, at her revered but dismissive father, whose vision for his family did not extend beyond his sons, and at a government that failed to deliver on America’s promise of equality. Now, in this “fascinating” (the Today show), “nuanced” (The Boston Globe) biography, “ace reporter and artful storyteller” (Pulitzer Prize–winning author Megan Marshall) Eileen McNamara finally brings Eunice Kennedy Shriver out from her brothers’ shadow. Granted access to never-before-seen private papers, including the scrapbooks Eunice kept as a schoolgirl in prewar London, McNamara paints an extraordinary portrait of a woman both ahead of her time and out of step with it: the visionary founder of Special Olympics, a devout Catholic in a secular age, and an officious, cigar-smoking, indefatigable woman whose impact on American society was longer lasting than that of any of the Kennedy men.