Can Democracy Work?: A Short History of a Radical Idea, from Ancient Athens to Our World
Written by James Miller
Narrated by Robert Petkoff
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
A new history of the world's most embattled idea.
Today, democracy is the world's only broadly accepted political system, and yet it has become synonymous with disappointment and crisis. How did it come to this? In Can Democracy Work? James Miller, the author of the classic history of 1960s protest Democracy Is in the Streets, offers a lively, surprising, and urgent history of the democratic idea from its first stirrings to the present. As he shows, democracy has always been rife with inner tensions. The ancient Greeks preferred to choose leaders by lottery and regarded elections as inherently corrupt and undemocratic. The French revolutionaries sought to incarnate the popular will, but many of them came to see the people as the enemy. And in the United States, the franchise would be extended to some even as it was taken from others. Amid the wars and revolutions of the twentieth century, communists, liberals, and nationalists all sought to claim the ideals of democracy for themselves—even as they manifestly failed to realize them.
Ranging from the theaters of Athens to the tents of Occupy Wall Street, Can Democracy Work? is an entertaining and insightful guide to our most cherished—and vexed—ideal.
James Miller
James Miller is a professor of politics and the chair of liberal studies at the New School for Social Research. He is the author of The Passion of Michel Foucault and Flowers in the Dustbin: The Rise of Rock & Roll, 1947–1977, among other books. He lives in New York City.
More audiobooks from James Miller
CHARISMA : The art of Personal Magnetism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pool Maintenance: A Comprehensive Guide To Maintaining Your Swimming Pool For Cleaner And Longer Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPERFORMANCE HABITS : HOW TO GET RID OF A BAD HABIT AND HOW TO IMPROVE GOOD HABITS Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to Can Democracy Work?
Related audiobooks
Empire of Democracy: The Remaking of the West Since the Cold War, 1971–2017 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Last Call for Liberty: How America's Genius for Freedom Has Become Its Greatest Threat Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bland Fanatics: Liberals, The West, and the Afterlives of Empire Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Revolutions: How They Changed History and What They Mean Today Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5The Shattering: America in the 1960s Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Cause of All Nations: An International History of the American Civil War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Light That Failed: Why the West Is Losing the Fight for Democracy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5All Against All: The Long Winter of 1933 and the Origins of the Second World War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Kill the Messangers: Stephen Harper's Assault on Your Right to Know Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOn Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder: Key Takeaways, Summary & Analysis Included Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOn Democracy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Politicians and the Egalitarians: The Hidden History of American Politics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Decades of Decadence: How Our Spoiled Elites Blew America's Inheritance of Liberty, Security, and Prosperity Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5For the Many: American Feminists and the Global Fight for Democratic Equality Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCan Democracy Survive Global Capitalism? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Macat Analysis of Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Changing World: Patriotism Against a Globalist Agenda Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Demagogue's Playbook: The Battle for American Democracy from the Founders to Trump Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Remaking the World: Decolonization and the Cold War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSymbols of Freedom: Slavery and Resistance Before the Civil War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe End of Ambition: The United States and the Third World in the Vietnam Era Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Four Threats: The Recurring Crises of American Democracy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The People vs. Democracy: Why Our Freedom Is in Danger and How to Save It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fragile Democracy: The Struggle over Race and Voting Rights in North Carolina Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOur Own Worst Enemy: The Assault from within on Modern Democracy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5American Revolution: The War for Independence and the Birth of the United States Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Political Ideologies For You
Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5America's Cultural Revolution: How the Radical Left Conquered Everything Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Deception: The Great Covid Cover-Up Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5American Marxism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Will Own Nothing: Your War with a New Financial World Order and How to Fight Back Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Communist Manifesto (Unabridged) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from the Culture of Contempt Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5While Time Remains: A North Korean Girl's Search for Freedom in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Vision of the Anointed: Self-congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unwoke: How to Defeat Cultural Marxism in America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Is Reality Optional?: And Other Essays Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Courage to Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Capitalist Punishment: How Wall Street Is Using Your Money to Create a Country You Didn't Vote For Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hate Inc.: Why Today's Media Makes Us Despise One Another Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fascism: A Warning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ship of Fools: How a Selfish Ruling Class Is Bringing America to the Brink of Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bullies: How the Left's Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences Americans Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Democrat Party Hates America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Recessional: The Death of Free Speech and the Cost of a Free Lunch Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blackout: How Black America Can Make Its Second Escape from the Democrat Plantation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Grift: The Downward Spiral of Black Republicans from the Party of Lincoln to the Cult of Trump Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jewish Space Lasers: The Rothschilds and 200 Years of Conspiracy Theories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To Make Men Free: A History of the Republican Party Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Can Democracy Work?
0 ratings0 reviews