Listen free for 30 days
-
Knowledge and Decisions
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 20 hrs and 53 mins
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wish list failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for $39.44
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Buy it with
-
The House of Morgan
- An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance
- Written by: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 34 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A gripping history of banking and the booms and busts that shaped the world on both sides of the Atlantic, The House of Morgan traces the trajectory of the J. P.Morgan empire from its obscure beginnings in Victorian London to the crash of 1987. Ron Chernow paints a fascinating portrait of the private saga of the Morgans and the rarefied world of the American and British elite in which they moved. Based on extensive interviews and access to the family and business archives, The House of Morgan is an investigative masterpiece.
-
-
legendary book does not disappoint
- By Amazon Customer on 2018-03-28
Written by: Ron Chernow
-
Return of the Primitive
- The Anti-Industrial Revolution
- Written by: Ayn Rand, Peter Schwartz
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the 1960s and early '70s, the most prominent, vocal cultural movement was the New Left: a movement that condemned America and everything it stood for: individualism, material wealth, science, technology, capitalism.
-
-
Eerie
- By C. Schuett on 2020-05-07
Written by: Ayn Rand, and others
-
Integrity
- The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality
- Written by: Henry Cloud
- Narrated by: Henry Cloud
- Length: 5 hrs and 14 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Integrity. It is more than simple honesty. It's the key to success. A person with integrity has the, often rare, ability to pull everything together, to make it all happen no matter how challenging the circumstances.
-
-
Why missing paragraphs?
- By Tom J. on 2023-02-17
Written by: Henry Cloud
-
How to Get Paid for What You Know
- Turning Your Knowledge, Passion, and Experience into an Online Income Stream in Your Spare Time
- Written by: Graham Cochrane
- Narrated by: Graham Cochrane
- Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Your knowledge, passions, and skills can be transformed into a lucrative income stream that requires no college degree, zero employees, and less than $50 to get started. Whether it takes shape as a full-fledged business, a side hustle, or automated earnings is up to you!
-
-
An amazing clear and concise system on creating an online business
- By Ziggy65 on 2022-10-30
Written by: Graham Cochrane
-
Controversial Essays
- Written by: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Leon Nixon
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of conservatism's most articulate voices dissects today's most important economic, racial, political, education, legal, and social issues, sharing his entertaining and thought-provoking insights on a wide range of contentious subjects.
Written by: Thomas Sowell
-
Barbarians Inside the Gates and Other Controversial Essays
- Written by: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Leon Nixon
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A collection of essays that discusses such issues as the media, immigration, the minimum wage, and multiculturalism.
Written by: Thomas Sowell
-
The House of Morgan
- An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance
- Written by: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 34 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A gripping history of banking and the booms and busts that shaped the world on both sides of the Atlantic, The House of Morgan traces the trajectory of the J. P.Morgan empire from its obscure beginnings in Victorian London to the crash of 1987. Ron Chernow paints a fascinating portrait of the private saga of the Morgans and the rarefied world of the American and British elite in which they moved. Based on extensive interviews and access to the family and business archives, The House of Morgan is an investigative masterpiece.
-
-
legendary book does not disappoint
- By Amazon Customer on 2018-03-28
Written by: Ron Chernow
-
Return of the Primitive
- The Anti-Industrial Revolution
- Written by: Ayn Rand, Peter Schwartz
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the 1960s and early '70s, the most prominent, vocal cultural movement was the New Left: a movement that condemned America and everything it stood for: individualism, material wealth, science, technology, capitalism.
-
-
Eerie
- By C. Schuett on 2020-05-07
Written by: Ayn Rand, and others
-
Integrity
- The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality
- Written by: Henry Cloud
- Narrated by: Henry Cloud
- Length: 5 hrs and 14 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Integrity. It is more than simple honesty. It's the key to success. A person with integrity has the, often rare, ability to pull everything together, to make it all happen no matter how challenging the circumstances.
-
-
Why missing paragraphs?
- By Tom J. on 2023-02-17
Written by: Henry Cloud
-
How to Get Paid for What You Know
- Turning Your Knowledge, Passion, and Experience into an Online Income Stream in Your Spare Time
- Written by: Graham Cochrane
- Narrated by: Graham Cochrane
- Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Your knowledge, passions, and skills can be transformed into a lucrative income stream that requires no college degree, zero employees, and less than $50 to get started. Whether it takes shape as a full-fledged business, a side hustle, or automated earnings is up to you!
-
-
An amazing clear and concise system on creating an online business
- By Ziggy65 on 2022-10-30
Written by: Graham Cochrane
-
Controversial Essays
- Written by: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Leon Nixon
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of conservatism's most articulate voices dissects today's most important economic, racial, political, education, legal, and social issues, sharing his entertaining and thought-provoking insights on a wide range of contentious subjects.
Written by: Thomas Sowell
-
Barbarians Inside the Gates and Other Controversial Essays
- Written by: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Leon Nixon
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A collection of essays that discusses such issues as the media, immigration, the minimum wage, and multiculturalism.
Written by: Thomas Sowell
-
Is Reality Optional?
- And Other Essays
- Written by: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Leon Nixon
- Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thomas Sowell challenges all the assumptions of contemporary liberalism on issues ranging from the economy to race to education in this collection of controversial essays, and captures his thoughts on politics, race, and common sense with a section at the end for thought-provoking quotes.
-
-
what's not to love ?
- By Nic Cruickshank on 2023-04-24
Written by: Thomas Sowell
-
The Vision of the Anointed
- Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy
- Written by: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Jim Seybert
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Vision of the Anointed is a devastating critique of the mindset behind the failed social policies of the past thirty years. Thomas Sowell sees what has happened not as a series of isolated mistakes, but as a logical consequence of a vision whose defects have led to disasters in education, crime, family disintegration, and other social pathology. In this book, "politically correct" theory is repeatedly confronted with facts-and sharp contradictions between the two are explained in terms of a whole set of self-congratulatory assumptions held by political and intellectual elites.
-
-
Essential 2022 reading. all about Trudeau
- By Mike on 2022-07-21
Written by: Thomas Sowell
-
The Harvard Business Review Leader's Handbook: Make an Impact, Inspire Your Organization, and Get to the Next Level
- HBR Handbooks Series
- Written by: Ron Ashkenas, Brook Manville
- Narrated by: Daniel Henning
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The critical leadership practices - the ones that will allow a leader to make the biggest impact over time - are well established. They're about how you create a vision and inspire others to follow it. In this comprehensive handbook, strategy and change experts Ron Ashkenas and Brook Manville distill proven ideas and frameworks about leadership from Harvard Business Review, interviews with senior executives, and their own experience in the field - all to help rising leaders stand out and have a big impact.
Written by: Ron Ashkenas, and others
-
Basic Economics
- A Citizen's Guide to the Economy: Revised and Expanded Edition
- Written by: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Brian Emerson
- Length: 18 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thomas Sowell has a different idea about how economics should be taught. With this groundbreaking introduction to economics, Sowell has thrown out the graphs, statistics, and jargon. Learning economics, he believes, should be relaxing - and even enjoyable. In this edition, Basic Economics has been revised and expanded to address the new concerns of the 21st century. It's focus has become more international, including the range of economic problems faced by foreign countries around the world.
-
-
This book should be mandatory reading in school.
- By Justin on 2020-09-24
Written by: Thomas Sowell
-
Churchill
- Written by: Roy Jenkins
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 38 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this magisterial book, Roy Jenkins' unparalleled command of the political history of Britain and his own high-level government experience combine in a narrative account of Churchill's astounding career that is unmatched in its shrewd insights, its unforgettable anecdotes, the clarity of its overarching themes, and the author's nuanced appreciation of his extraordinary subject.
Written by: Roy Jenkins
-
The Thomas Sowell Reader
- Written by: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 14 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
These selections from the many writings of Thomas Sowell over a period of half a century cover social, economic, cultural, legal, educational, and political issues. The sources range from Dr. Sowell’s letters, books, newspaper columns, and articles in both scholarly journals and popular magazines. The topics range from latetalking children to tax cuts for the rich, baseball, race, war, the role of judges, medical care, and the rhetoric of politicians.
-
-
Fully worthwile
- By Amazon Customer on 2021-07-16
Written by: Thomas Sowell
-
The Great Mental Models
- General Thinking Concepts
- Written by: Shane Parrish
- Narrated by: Shane Parrish
- Length: 3 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Great Mental Models: General Thinking Concepts is the first book in The Great Mental Models series designed to upgrade your thinking with the best, most useful and powerful tools so you always have the right one on hand. This volume details nine of the most versatile all-purpose mental models you can use right away to improve your decision making, your productivity, and how clearly you see the world.
-
-
Great information let down by the narration
- By Jason on 2019-04-27
Written by: Shane Parrish
-
An Economist Walks into a Brothel
- And Other Unexpected Places to Understand Risk
- Written by: Allison Schrager
- Narrated by: Holly Palance
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Whether we realize it or not, we all take risks large and small every day. Even the most cautious among us cannot opt out - the question is always which risks to take, not whether to take them at all. What most of us don't know is how to measure those risks and maximize the chances of getting what we want out of life. In An Economist Walks into a Brothel, Schrager equips listeners with five principles for dealing with risk, principles used by some of the world's most interesting risk takers.
-
-
A good introduction to everyday risk
- By Lexloco on 2023-04-20
Written by: Allison Schrager
-
Discrimination and Disparities
- Written by: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 5 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Discrimination and Disparities challenges believers in such one-factor explanations of economic outcome differences as discrimination, exploitation, or genetics. It is listenable enough for people with no prior knowledge of economics. Yet the empirical evidence with which it backs up its analysis spans the globe and challenges beliefs across the ideological spectrum.
-
-
Essential to understanding the world in all times.
- By Conrad on 2019-01-19
Written by: Thomas Sowell
-
Paris 1919
- Six Months That Changed the World
- Written by: Margaret MacMillan
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 25 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize, renowned historian Margaret MacMillan's best-selling Paris 1919 is the story of six remarkable months that changed the world. At the close of WWI, between January and July of 1919, delegates from around the world converged on Paris under the auspices of peace. New countries were created, old empires were dissolved, and for six months, Paris was the center of the world.
-
-
Very important book
- By AvidReader on 2023-02-13
Written by: Margaret MacMillan
-
Plays Well with Others
- The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Relationships Is (Mostly) Wrong
- Written by: Eric Barker
- Narrated by: Roger Wayne
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Plays Well With Others, Eric Barker dives into these questions, drawing on science to reveal the truth beyond the conventional wisdom about human relationships. Combining his compelling storytelling and humor, Barker explains what hostage negotiation techniques and marital arguments have in common, how an expert con-man lied his way into a twenty-year professional soccer career, and why those holding views diametrically opposed to our own actually have the potential to become our closest, most trusted friends.
-
-
Very relatable and relevant
- By Sally Arsenault on 2023-10-09
Written by: Eric Barker
-
Everybody Lies
- Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are
- Written by: Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, Steven Pinker - foreword
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By the end of on average day in the early 21st century, human beings searching the Internet will amass eight trillion gigabytes of data. This staggering amount of information - unprecedented in history - can tell us a great deal about who we are - the fears, desires, and behaviors that drive us, and the conscious and unconscious decisions we make. From the profound to the mundane, we can gain astonishing knowledge about the human psyche that less than 20 years ago seemed unfathomable.
-
-
Totally worth the effort.
- By Stacy Richter on 2022-01-20
Written by: Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, and others
Publisher's Summary
This reissue of Thomas Sowell’s classic study of decision making, which includes a preface by the author, updates his seminal work in the context of The Vision of the Anointed. Sowell, one of America’s most celebrated public intellectuals, describes in concrete detail how knowledge is shared and disseminated throughout modern society. He warns that society suffers from an ever-widening gap between firsthand knowledge and decision making—a gap that threatens not only our economic and political efficiency but our very freedom. This is because actual knowledge is being replaced by assumptions based on an abstract and elitist social vision of what ought to be.
Knowledge and Decisions, a winner of the 1980 Law and Economics Center Prize, was heralded as a landmark work and selected for this prize “because of its cogent contribution to our understanding of the differences between the market process and the process of government.” In announcing the award, the center acclaimed that the “contribution to our understanding of the process of regulation alone would make the book important, but in reemphasizing the diversity and efficiency that the market makes possible, [this] work goes deeper and becomes even more significant.”
Thomas Sowell is currently a scholar in residence at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He has been published in both academic journals and such popular media as the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Fortune and writes a syndicated column for newspapers across the country.
What the critics say
More from the same
What listeners say about Knowledge and Decisions
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Matt
- 2018-04-26
Brilliant. Required material for modern humans
Sowell helps you understand the complex society we inhabit and destroys the political rhetoric of all sides. It's difficult to understand all he discusses in the first pass, but issues become clearer with more listens. I think this is required reading for anyone who wishes to advance their knowledge of society.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- RobKYEG
- 2018-10-23
Both enlightening and devastating.
Immensely challenging to contemporary political, social and ideological notions. The evidence is formidable and verifiable, the arguments and explanations are thorough.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- M. Yakiwchuk
- 2023-05-29
One of the best
Knowledge and Decisions is one of the best books I have ever read. Reading this book, you will understand the motives and incentives of various decision makers and groups and the feedback loops (if any) they encounter from those impacted by their decisions.
Downsides: A bit academic/textbook-like at times. Narrator is best endured in short doses and when wide awake.
Upsides: Equips the reader with a comprehensive understanding of the world as it is, vis a vis the knowledge and decisions made by those of us living in the world as it is.
Overall: Strongly recommended to those looking to understand why the world is as it is, by one of America’s most grounded intellectuals, Thomas Sowell. 5/5
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Matt
- 2023-04-26
Listen and understand.
Incentives drive human behaviour and therefore society. A brilliant explanation of the information that drives the world. A must listen for those interested in the truth of human nature and the way the world works.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Lexloco
- 2022-11-21
Thought-provoking
It is trite to say that we are living in times of polarized thinking and divisive politics. I have personally found that I tend to look for confirmatory news and commentary rather than those that challenge my current beliefs. (That said, I did try to listen to Fox News for a week, but found it was intolerable.) Thomas Sowell’s views are by no means unassailable, but are so well argued that I found myself actually changing my views on some “political” issues. I recommend listeners across the political spectrum listen to it.
One caveat: it is not a light listen. I usually listen to fiction at 2x speed and nonfiction at 1.5. I had to listen to this at regular (1x) speed and back up several times to understand the points being made.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Aaron
- 2022-05-07
Awesome
adjective,
extremely impressive or daunting; inspiring great admiration, apprehension, or fear.
My only criticism of this great work is that more people haven't read/heard its message.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Doug
- 2012-12-08
Thomas Sowell's Greatest Work
IMO, among Thomas Sowell's small library of outstanding contributions, Knowledge and Decisions easily ranks as the finest. This is the 1996 edition, which simply adds a substantial preface to the original 1980 edition as far as I can tell.
The first half of the book is a brilliant, seminal, and timeless treatment of the nature of knowledge, how it is obtained, validated, transmitted, coordinated and acted upon. Sowell analyzes social, economic, and political structures and institutions in terms of their decision making processes and incentives as opposed to their intentions and hoped for results, and explains in a truly fundamental way how complex societies work.
The second half of the book examines specific trends and issues in the social, political, economic, and legal arenas. At the time of its publication, this was the current events section. Of course, the world has changed in many profound (and superficial) ways since 1980, so this section today is more historical in nature.
But since one of the great strengths of Sowell's work is its basis in and exposition of global and world historical experiences and perspectives, section two retains its interest and force, and is an effective reminder of the failures of centralized decision making structures that were viscerally evident a generation ago (especially via communism), but whose implications are largely forgotten today. As the saying goes, those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
All in all, this is a great book that stands the test of time quite easily.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
40 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Kindle Customer
- 2019-11-03
Hard but well worth the effort.
Here is what you are getting into. This is not a book to listen to while you are jogging. In fact, you might need to read along and take notes. The first 1 hour will be relatively easy to understand. The middle 17 hours will be tough. You might be tempted to give up but stick with it, listen and re-listen in small chunks. The last 3 hours will also be relatively easy to understand.
So why invest the time to listen? What should you expect at the end? Very simply, a thorough analysis of the political situtation in America. You will understand how simple vocabulary changes you've never noticed or you've been taking for granted signal monumental changes in the political framework.
A short overview of the book is that the kind of knowledge deployed or claimed in public decision making should be verifiable and subject to authentication and feedback. Based on this, the book argues that the most monumental political shifts have occurred in those areas where decision making is being shifted from individuals or institutions with incentives for refining their working knowledge with effective feedback to individuals or institutions insulated from any kind of feedback.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
19 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Søren
- 2015-12-18
Important knowledge!
Great insight, and a new way of thinking for me, really enjoyed it, even the dense high level English.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- fm2
- 2013-01-04
Interesting in theory but dull in practice
I generally like sowell's work even if it they all tend to move a bit slow for me as they are often geared to a very general reader.
The main problem with this book is one of degree: that it spoon feeds. For anyone who is accustomed to thinking systematically, this book breaks down the bites way too small and hence becomes extra slow moving and by extension dull. I gave up less than one-third of the way through-knowing i couldn't take that many more hours. i will say that i enjoyed the introduction (written 15 years after the original book) more than what followed.
again, he is a good writer, its an interesting topic, his stories and explanations are very clear, but he really belabors every little point in this book.an abridged audio book would NOT help, but i do feel he could have written this in half the text
Dean is a solid narrator.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Joshua Smith
- 2019-01-20
The basic premises in all of Sowell's other works.
The basic premises in all of Sowell's other works are seen here. If you're familiar with his more recent books, this may be redundant for you. But, it was still a good listen.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Charles
- 2014-09-28
Political work, not psychological
Disappointing. I expected a book about how knowledge is processed to make decisions and got a very political diatribe. Would not read another work from this author.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Javier
- 2018-08-19
T Sowell = Timeless
Amazing read, strongly encourage it for understanding all processes undertaken by men. Great political insight and profundity
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- AndriiShyshkalov
- 2015-01-08
Read at least first half
The most important and foundational of Sowell's book. The first part is superb, while the second is boring at times. I enjoyed second part too because it is 30 years old and gives contemporary account, which is different than reading history books now.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Di
- 2012-10-15
A must-read master piece
If you could sum up Knowledge and Decisions in three words, what would they be?
Best best and best
What was one of the most memorable moments of Knowledge and Decisions?
Every moment
What does Robertson Dean bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
A good narrative
What’s the most interesting tidbit you’ve picked up from this book?
from cover to cover
Any additional comments?
I just love Thomas sowell, and this book!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Jean-Sebastien
- 2023-01-11
Great book, lazy audio port
The book and narration are great. It feels more rigorous than other books by the same author and it's more cohesive than the generic-sounding title might imply.
But the book is split up in roughly one-hour chunks, erroneously called chapters, that don't match the book's chapters. How lazy can the publisher be to not even bother to get the table of contents right? It makes it impossible to go back to sections you want to revisit because there'd be no way of knowing where they are.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful