Democracies in America: Keywords for the 19th Century and Today

·
· Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by James Babson, Lisa Larsen, Mia Ellis, Amir Abdullah, Kyla García, and VyVy Nguyen
Audiobook
11 hr 47 min
Unabridged
Eligible
Ratings and reviews aren’t verified  Learn More
Want a 1 hr 10 min sample? Listen anytime, even offline. 
Add

About this audiobook

Ask someone their thoughts about "democracy" and you'll get many different responses. Some may presume it a thing once established yet now under threat. Others may believe that democracy has always been compromised by the empowered few. In the contemporary United States, marked by constituencies across the political spectrum believing that their voices have gone unheard, "democracy" gets wielded in so many divergent directions as to be rendered nearly incoherent. Democracies in America reminds us that this reality is nothing new. Focusing on the various meanings of "democracy" that circulated in the nineteenth century, the book collects twenty-five essays, each taking up a keyword in the language we use to talk about democracy. The essays consider the relationship between "America" and "democracy" from multiple disciplinary angles and from different moments in a major historical period-amidst the vitality of the revolutionary epoch, in the contentious lead-up to the Civil War, and through the triumphs and failures of Reconstruction and the early reforms of the Progressive Era-while making both forward and backward glances in time. This volume cultivates, for students and teachers in classrooms, as well as citizens in libraries and cafes, a language to deliberate about the possibilities and problems of democracy in America.

About the author

James Babson has accumulated nearly twenty years of professional acting experience since graduating from the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama. His notable film roles include Dan Zuckerberg in The Words and Agent Moss in Hellboy. He has recorded hundreds of audiobooks under his own name as well as various aliases.

After earning a degree in musical theater and spending several years hustling on the business side of the film industry, Lisa Larsen has found her way back to her first love: performing. When she's not narrating, she's devoting time to her daughters, baking healthy treats, or enjoying a DIY project with her husband.

Mia Ellis is a member of the Resident Acting Company at Trinity Repertory Company. Based in Providence and New York, she is also a teaching artist and writer. Some of her film and television credits include Elementary, Person of Interest, and Louder Than Words. Mia is a graduate of the Brown/Trinity Rep MFA Acting Program.

Amir Abdullah is an actor, playwright, and audiobook narrator residing in Los Angeles. He is a four-time Golden Earphone Award winner and an ALSC Notable Children's Recording recipient.

Kyla Garcia is a film, stage, and television actress based in Los Angeles, California. She has earned an Audie Award nomination and seven AudioFile Earphones Awards for her work as an audiobook narrator.

VyVy Nguyen is a Vietnamese American actress based in Los Angeles. She graduated from USC's School of Dramatic Arts and specializes in narrating books by authors of the Vietnamese diaspora.

Gregory Laski is the author of Untimely Democracy, which won the American Literature Association's 2019 Pauline E. Hopkins Society Scholarship Award. He is currently a civilian associate professor of English at the United States Air Force Academy. He holds a PhD in English from Northwestern University.

D. Berton Emerson is Associate Professor of English and hirector of the honors program at Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington. His writing has appeared in American Literature, ESQ, Nineteenth-Century Literature, and the Los Angeles Review of Books.

Rate this audiobook

Tell us what you think.

Listening information

Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can read books purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.