"Federalist No. 10" by Publius (James Madison)

Source: American Phonic (mp3)
Length: 19 min
Reader: Michael Scherer

The essay: Although the colonies declared their independence in 1776, the United States as a nation was not born until much later. In 1787, a new Constitution was proposed to take the place of the weak Articles of Confederation.  Under the new constitution, a Federal Republic would have powers that pertained to the welfare of the Union as a whole, while states would retain some of their previous powers.

Some, however, felt that this new system of government would make the nation less democratic by reserving powers in a more distant federal government rather than the more local state governments. In response to these Anti-Federalists, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay wrote what became known as the Federalist Papers, a series of editorials arguing the merits of the new Constitution.

In this essay, "Federalist Number 10", Madison attempts to refute the idea that in the new government special interests ("factions") will gain the upper hand and impose their will against the good of particular states. His key argument is that in national government, the size of the faction would have to be so much larger to influence a larger government, so you would be less likely to be hurt by a minor faction. This argument held up in 1787, but in modern America, we have political parties who choose their candidates through primaries that can be influenced by small number of people, such as in the Iowa corn growers in Presidential primaries. Thus, Madison's ideal of a government beyond the reach of factions has become a government full of special interests.

Rating: 7 / 10

The reader: Scherer has a deep, stentorian voice that fits well with the formal Enlightenment style of the original. His reading is clear and straightforward; not an easy thing to do with the tongue-tying maze of subordinate clauses in this essay.  The sound quality is excellent. The other portions of the Federalist Papers are available at the link above, including the equally famous Federalist No. 51.

"The Declaration of Independence" by the Continental Congress

Source: The Monticello Classroom (mp3)
Length: 10 min.
Reader: Bill Barker

The document: Happy Independence Day! Even though I've read it before, it's always interesting on the Fourth of July to go back and actually read the document we're celebrating.

The Declaration of Independence is an eloquent piece of writing because it had to be. The signers knew they weren't just protesting bad governance, they were committing treason, which, even in the waning days of the belief in the Divine Right of kings, was considered a sin and a capital crime. Thomas Jefferson and his colleagues crafted an argument that clearly lays out the reasons for dissolving the ties with the British Empire while sounding reluctant to do so.  In making the statement of national independence so audacious yet well-reasoned, they ensured that the Colonies would not only gain important allies, but also sustain their motivation for the years of war.

Rating: N/A

The reader: According to the source of this recording, Bill Barker is an actor who portrays Thomas Jefferson at Colonial Williamsburg, an ongoing history re-enactment in a historic town.  As such, he reads with a Southern accent that is charming and genteel.  The Declaration is full of eighteenth century turns of phrase that sound awkward to modern ears, but Barker brings the words alive and gives them the forcefulness they must have had when first written 235 years ago.

"When the Towers Fell" by Galway Kinnell

Source: The Poetic Voice (mp3)
Length: 20 minutes
Reader: Galaway Kinnell

The poem: Galway Kinnell is a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winning poet. As he explains in the introduction to the poem, Kinnell was preparing to teach poetry for the first day of classes at NYU when the first plane hit the World Trade Center. He began this poem as a writing exercise to help the students come to terms with their emotions, but the poem grew into its present form over time.

Almost ten years after the September 11th terrorist attacks, I had almost forgotten the sense of doom and melancholy that blanketed the nation. Kinnell captures those feelings and images so well, I feel like I'm back in the moment. The litany of the individual deaths in the collapse as well as the description of the woman looking for her loved one give the poem a personal, up-close quality. This is not a sanitized eulogy or fist-pumping patriotism, but a somber, realistic remembrance of the victims and survivors.

Rating: 9 /10

The reader: Kinnell has a strong, resonant voice that is a joy to listen to. He reads the poem with a strong sense of rhythm, drawing out the emotion of the poem without becoming emotion himself. The discussion with Houghton Mifflin poetry editor Janet Silver is enlightening, putting Kinnell and his poem in context. If you are interested in poetry, this is a good podcast series. Besides this episode, I strongly recommend April's episode, featuring a variety of poets for National Poetry Month (mp3).

(photo by TheMachineStops, edited by upstateNYer via Wikimedia. Creative Commons attribution, share-alike license)

The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois

Source: LibriVox (zipped mp3s)
Length: 7 hours, 59 min
Reader: toriasuncle

The book: I chose this book as my reading for Black History Month. Du Bois was a civil rights leader and a professor at Atlanta University in the early 20th century. This work, one of his greatest, lays out his views on a wide range of subjects related to racial inequality in the United States, particularly in the South.

The book consists of a series of poetic essays with subjects ranging from a history of the Freedman's Bureau to a biography of Alexander Crummell, a black priest in the Episcopal Church who was rejected by the white church hierarchy and ignored by the black congregations he tried to reach.  Along the way, Du Bois paints a detailed picture of the black community of the late 1800's and early 1900's, arguing that although some of the stereotypes of the Negro have some element of truth, much of the perceived failings are due to the injustice and hopelessness of his condition. As is fitting for a college professor, he spends a good deal of time on education, rejecting Booker T. Washington's view that blacks should confine their studies to an industrial education and instead advocating the addition of a classical education to train leaders and educators.

For me, the book culminates in the thirteenth chapter, "Of the Coming of John," in which Du Bois tells the fictional story of a the life of a black man who gets a college education then returns to his town only to be rejected by both whites and blacks. The story seems to illustrate all the descriptions and arguments from previous chapters. Du Bois's prose here, as in the rest of the book, sings with melody while stating the most ugly truths.

Rating: 8 /10

The reader:  At first, I was a bit thrown off by description "music performed by toriasuncle," but later I realized that each chapter in the print version is introduced by a short musical passage from a Negro spiritual. The music is unobtrusive and is the perfect audio translation for the way it's presented in the book. The reader himself is superb. He reads with a slow, measured cadence, sounding remarkably similar to President Obama's narration of The Audacity of Hope.  When there is dialog or expressions in dialect, he performs an excellent Southern accent, varied for the race and education level of the speaker. There's a bit of background sound, but in an otherwise excellent reading, that's a minor complaint.

(Entered in the Book Review Wednesday contest at Cym Lowell. Follow the link for reviews of other books by various bloggers)

"Cicero" by John Lord

Source: ejunto (part 1 | 2 )
Length: 49 minutes
Reader: Andrew Julow

The story: Cicero, the greatest statesman of the last days of the Roman Republic, has a life that makes for a great story. He rose from a modestly weathly, but politically weak family to become the consul of Rome without being a general or patrician nobleman. Then, outmaneuvered by his political opponents, he was exiled for proclaiming without trial a sentence of death on the minor members of an attempted coup. He rose again to prominence through the force of his writing, then fell again when he chose to back Pompey against Julius Ceasar in the Roman Civil War. After the murder of Ceasar, Cicero spoke out against Mark Antony, finally submitting to execution after Antony entered a power-sharing agreement with Augustus.

Lord makes no excuses for giving his opinions about Cicero or any other subject that comes his way. He draws parallels between the Romans and individual politicians of his own time. Although these comparisons were probably enlightening for people reading his words in the 19th century, I had difficulty following some of his references. Lord's opinionated retelling is entertaining and educational, but I found myself wishing he had spent more time on the details of this fascinating man's life, and less time pontificating about the lessons we should learn.

Rating: 7 /10

The reader: Julow has a serious, earnest baritone that is a good match for history. The only problem is that he doesn't vary his delivery much, sticking with the same punctuated declarations throughout. Personally, I enjoy a looser style, but Julow's stiff reading is probably more accurate for the time it was written. Other than this matter of taste, the reading is good and the sound quality excellent.

Twelve Byzantine Rulers by Lars Brownworth

Source: 12byzantinerulers.com
Length: 5.5 hours, plus sidenotes
Reader: Lars Brownworth

The book: I initially was divided over whether to include this podcast as an audiobook or not. I usually only review individual episodes of a podcasts, but for this I felt it met my criteria of an audiobook for three reasons: 1) limitation of scope 2) consistancy of authorship 3) book-level quality. Unlike many podcasts, this one is limited in both the number of episodes and the scope of its subject: the lives and accomplishments of a select few emperors of the Byzantine Empire. Secondly, this is more like a book because of Brownworth's consistent viewpoint, unlike many podcasts which feature a different guest or author each episode. Lastly, Brownsworth delivers his information in the format of a well-written history, rather than the conversation, variety show, or audio magazine formats that many podcasts use.

The format works well, especially since Brownsworth is a remarkable storyteller. He has the ability to connect the events of the Byzantine Empire into a gripping narrative. The emperors and their contemporaries are introduced as complex people, some with heroic qualities, but all with some flaws. Told in this way, the little remembered eastern remenant of the Rome becomes a Tolkeinesque epic of how one nation stood against the Muslim empires long enough to allow Western Europe to become strong.

Rating: 8 /10

The reader: Brownsworth has a way with words that takes me back to some of the best courses I had in college. His speech is never dry, instead he varies his voice to share the enthusiasm he has for history.  The sound recording is a little bit noisy, but not bad. The main thread of the book is presented in individual chapters, with additional audio sidebars that can be downloaded seperately.

"The Assasination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Considered as a Downhill Motor Race" by J.G. Ballard

Source: Miette's Bedtime Story Podcast (mp3)
Length: 7 minutes
Reader: Miette

The story: I listened to this story while in Dallas, on a commuter train that passes Dealey Plaza and the Texas School Book Depository on my way to my job next to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where President Kennedy died. So, when I heard the story, I knew the geography intimately, and was aware of the facts surrounding the assassination, having recently attended the Sixth Floor Museum at the Book Depository.

Ballard approaches the JFK assassination with dark humor. The extended metaphor of a downhill race to the murder of a President satirizes the heavy media revisiting of the assassination from every possible angle. The light tone of the story shocks the reader out of his familiarity with the events, paradoxically making Pres. Kennedy's death more disturbing.

Rating: 8/10

The reader: As I've mentioned before, Miette has a wonderful soft voice that I could listen to over and over again. Her lovely British accent doesn't quite fit with the subject matter, but it is undeniably pleasant. Her pacing is slow and her tone is neutral, allowing the listener to decide his own views on this disturbing piece of writing.

Our Island Story by H.E. Marshall

Source: Librivox (part 1 zipped mp3s | part2 zipped mp3s)
Length: 16 hr, 53 min
Readers: Kara Shallenberg and Jim Mowatt

The book: Our Island Story is a children's history book of Great Britain, up to the end of the Victorian Age. As its name implies, this is not a scholarly history, but a series of history stories. Marshall does not investigate the socio-political background behind events or apply economic theory to the past. Instead she tells the legend of Boudica in the same narrative style as a story about the signing of the Magna Carta.

What this type of narrative history may lack in scholarly rigor, it makes up for by being a fascinating read. This is the history that people remember, long after the facts and dates have faded from their minds. Of course, this history must be taken with a grain of salt, since it carries many of the prejudices and nationalism of the British Empire. As someone who knows only the barest bones of British history, this was a great, fun introduction to the characters and events of the past.

Rating: 8/10

The readers: To me, Kara Shallenberg is the epitome of LibriVox readers: decidedly amateur, but wonderful nonetheless.  Comparing a LibriVox book to a professional audiobook is like comparing a cake that your friend made you to a cake baked by a high-end baker and cake-decorator. The professional product is perfect, with smooth icing, moist cake, and eye-popping decorations. Your friend doesn't have the training, experience, or expensive equipment that the pro does, but her cake is made because she loves to bake and that makes it special.

Kara's reading is full of little mistakes like birds chirping in the background, but it's a labor of love from which it's easy to pick up her enthusiasm for the book. When Jim Mowatt joins her to read every other chapter in the second half of the book, he adds some weightiness and an appropriate British accent to this story of British History. This is not a recording for those who like their audiobooks perfect, but instead it's for anyone who appreciates a good amateur effort.

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Ben Franklin

Source: ejunto
Length: Approx 6.2 hrs
Reader: Andrew Julow

The book: Benjamin Franklin was the 18th century's picture of the potential of the New World: a great scientist, inventor, diplomat and writer, he was self-educated, practical, witty, and wise. This autobiography, written intermittently during Franklin's later life, was never finished; the narrative ends shortly after the French and Indian War. Therefore, there's no descriptions of some of Franklin's most famous accomplishments during the Revolutionary War, such as his contributions to the Declaration of Independence, his diplomatic mission to France, or his signing of the peace treaty with Britain. We also don't get any insight into Franklin's experiences during the formation of the U.S. Constitution, an account which have been a great historical document.

Despite these omissions, Franklin's story of his life is fascinating. His civic projects in Philadelphia introduced many of the urban conveniences we take for granted: street lighting, fire departments and lending libraries. Toward the end, he mentions some of his famous scientific experiments on electricity, which made him known throughout Europe.

Franklin writes his memoirs addressing his son, and so a good deal of fatherly advice comes through in the telling. The writing is not always riveting. Franklin tends to ramble about financial transactions and trivial matters. At other times, though, Franklin's famous wit enlivens the story and makes it clear why this is considered one of the greatest American autobiographies.

Rating: 6/10

The reader: Andrew Julow reads with a clear, steady voice that conveys Franklin's homespun wisdom. Unfortunately, he does not make it clear when Franklin is being witty, something that is hard to pick out when the reader voices a sarcastic comment with a straight tone. As I've mentioned before, one of the most difficult things to read is another person's jokes, so I'll cut Julow a large amount of slack in this regard. The recording is beautifully quiet and Julow's voice comes through cleanly.