Premium Only Content

Democracy - An American Novel by Henry Adams - Audiobook
Democracy - An American Novel by Henry Adams.
Read by Nicholas Clifford.
Not until after his death in 1918 was it revealed that Henry Adams was the anonymous author of Democracy, which had been published to great acclaim in 1880. Though the book avoids dates and the characters are fictitious, the setting is no doubt that of Washington in the 1870s, the age of Presidents Grant and Hayes. The young widow, Madeleine Lee, wealthy and independent, is the protagonist, who leaves her New York for Washington to turn her intelligence to politics and to see what makes her country tick. There she meets (among others) Senator Silas P. Ratcliffe of Illinois, one of the most powerful and influential (if somewhat uncultured) men of the capital, who is considering a run for the presidency, and who needs a wife to act as First Lady, a position that (he thinks) Mrs. Lee would admirably fill.
Through the book Adams plays with the themes of political necessity, compromise, corruption -- particularly the kind of corporate domination of national politics that he saw becoming all too powerful. Should honest and intelligent men keep their integrity by avoiding politics? Or would that simply mean turning over the governance of the country to power-hungry, scheming, and none too honest hacks? For all the witty conversations in his novel, this was a theme that plagued Adams (a presidential grandson) in life as well as literature, and it is a theme that has by no means disappeared today.
(Introduction by Nicholas Clifford)
-
2:18:29
Badlands Media
11 hours agoDevolution Power Hour Ep. 376
124K27 -
37:46
Stephen Gardner
9 hours ago🔥Trump NEVER expected THIS WIN as Schumer has EPIC MELTDOWN!
24.1K28 -
2:02:41
Inverted World Live
5 hours agoNASA Engineer Says Trillions of Shape-Shifting, Cloaked Devices are Hidden on Earth| Ep. 83
22.4K8 -
3:12:37
TimcastIRL
6 hours agoGOP Councilman DOUSED IN GAS, Set ON FIRE In Virginia, Suspect In Custody | Timcast IRL
227K78 -
2:32:23
The Quartering
5 hours agoOn To The Big Bosses! Act 2 Of Expedition 33
50.8K4 -
LIVE
SpartakusLIVE
7 hours agoTiger Blood RESTOCKED and 30% off w/ code SPARTAKUS30
491 watching -
24:58
Law&Crime
8 hours ago $1.60 earnedSecond Note Leaves Disturbing Clues in New York City Killings
28.3K9 -
1:36:57
Badlands Media
23 hours agoAltered State S3 Ep. 39: Earthquakes, Energy Games & the Fall of the Narrative
62.8K13 -
2:04:07
Due Dissidence
13 hours agoCharlie Kirk's GAZA LIES, Caitlin Clark Stalker, Palantir Goes Hollywood - w/ Kyle Matovcik | TMWS
33.3K8 -
2:54:43
I_Came_With_Fire_Podcast
14 hours agoAmerica First, Trump Threatens China, Your Friendly Neighborhood Illegal, EPA Gets a "W"
34.1K7