DescriptionThe Chancellor has little power...He is mired down by baseless accusations of corruption. A manufactured scandal surrounds him, Senator Palpatine told Queen Amidala in Episode I. Tracing the thrilling chain of events that leads up to the Republic's curren…
DescriptionVeni, vidi, vici - "I came, I saw, I conquered" he boasted: and no one could say he lied. Few other men in history have received so much praise and so much condemnation, and few other men achieved such power. Soldier, statesman, lawyer, priest, writer, social reformer, national leader, fortune builder, and organizer of the infamous Roman Games. Caesar's life was full of anomalies. He transformed Rome from a crumbling republic to a state on the road to imperial power. The story of his life, work, and now legendary assassination, make absorbing listening. The part of Julius Caesar is played by Stephen Thorne. Other parts are played by Alex Davion and Peter Penry-Jones.
DescriptionAlexis de Tocqueville, a young French aristocrat, captured the essence of nineteenth-century America in his penetrating work, Democracy in America . The democratic concept of equality was emerging as a political reality in America, and it threatened the aristocracy of Europe; it produced a society of individualists hungry for self improvement. In this classic treatise, Tocqueville weighed the advantages of democracy against its dangers. He asked: Is the tendency toward equality a tendency toward liberty? Can the majority be restrained to protect the freedom of individuals and minorities? In pondering these questions, Tocqueville presented an unsurpassed picture of American government, culture, and attitudes. He proclaimed a new nation with a new theory of human interaction: America, ruled by the will of the majority.
DescriptionIn an age when philosophers had scarcely glimpsed the horizons of the mind, a boy named Aristocles decided to forgo his ambitions as a wrestler. Adopting the nickname Plato, he embarked instead on a life in philosophy. In 387 B.C. he founded the Academy, the world's first university, and taught his students that all we see is not reality but merely a reproduction of the true source. And in his famous Republic he described the politics of "the highest form of state." In Plato in 90 Minutes, Paul Strathern offers a concise, expert account of Plato's life and ideas and explains their influence on man's struggle to understand his existence in the world.
DescriptionHow remarkable that an Italian living in the 15th and 16th centuries should lend his name to a word still in common usage in the English language today. Nicolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) wrote only one major work as a gift for his ruling Prince, Lorenzo de Medici. Machiavelli held office as a senior civil servant for 14 years until the downfall of the Republic in 1512. No longer officially employed to impart advice, instead Machiavelli poured out his ideas and resentment in his writings. The Prince has remained a prominent classic ever since; valued for its shrewd psychological insight, powerful words, and prophetic quality. And even today, it has never lost its power to shock and influence. Ian Richardson's formidable reading of this modern unabridged translation is an accessible and entertaining way in to a truly compelling world view.
DescriptionAuthor of the beloved classic The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCullough creates sweeping sagas that are unparalleled in their drama and emotional grandeur. Now she carries listeners into the pageantry and passion, politics and intrigue of ancient Rome. Cunning and ambition were prized in this vast and powerful empire, but what would it take to win its highest honor, to be First Man in Rome?
