
Mayday 1971
A White House at War, a Revolt in the Streets, and the Untold History of America's Biggest Mass Arrest
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $28.79
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Kiff VandenHeuvel
-
By:
-
Lawrence Roberts
About this listen
A vivid account of the largest act of civil disobedience in US history, in Richard Nixon’s Washington
They surged into Washington by the tens of thousands in the spring of 1971. Fiery radicals, flower children, and militant vets gathered for the most audacious act in a years-long movement to end America’s war in Vietnam: a blockade of the nation’s capital. And the White House, headed by an increasingly paranoid Richard Nixon, was determined to stop it.
Washington journalist Lawrence Roberts, drawing on dozens of interviews, unexplored archives, and newfound White House transcripts, re-creates these largely forgotten events through the eyes of dueling characters. Woven into the story too are now-familiar names including John Kerry, Jane Fonda, and Daniel Ellsberg, leaker of the Pentagon Papers. It began with a bombing inside the US Capitol—a still-unsolved case to which Roberts brings new information. To prevent the Mayday Tribe’s guerrilla-style traffic blockade, the government mustered the military. Riot squads swept through the city, arresting more than 12,000 people. As a young female public defender led a thrilling legal battle to free the detainees, Nixon and his men took their first steps down the road to the Watergate scandal and the implosion of the presidency.
Mayday 1971 is the ultimately inspiring story of a season when our democracy faced grave danger, and survived.
©2020 Lawrence Roberts (P)2020 Houghton Mifflin HarcourtListeners also enjoyed...
-
American Midnight
- The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis
- By: Adam Hochschild
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 15 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From legendary historian Adam Hochschild, a groundbreaking reassessment of the overlooked but startlingly resonant period between World War I and the Roaring Twenties, when the foundations of American democracy were threated by war, pandemic, and violence fueled by battles over race, immigration, and the rights of labor
-
-
Disturbing yet Reassuring
- By Sams95 on 11-18-22
By: Adam Hochschild
-
The Hardhat Riot
- Nixon, New York City, and the Dawn of the White Working-Class Revolution
- By: David Paul Kuhn
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In May 1970, four days after Kent State, construction workers chased students through downtown Manhattan, beating scores of protesters bloody. As hardhats clashed with hippies, it soon became clear that something larger was underway - Democrats were at war with themselves. In The Hardhat Riot, David Paul Kuhn tells the fateful story of when the white working class first turned against liberalism, when Richard Nixon seized the breach, and America was forever changed.
-
-
Beautifully written and deeply researched
- By Paula Pant on 02-02-23
By: David Paul Kuhn
-
Prequel
- An American Fight Against Fascism
- By: Rachel Maddow
- Narrated by: Rachel Maddow
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inspired by her research for the hit podcast Ultra, Rachel Maddow charts the rise of a wild American strain of authoritarianism that has been alive on the far-right edge of our politics for the better part of a century. Before and even after our troops had begun fighting abroad in World War II, a clandestine network flooded the country with disinformation aimed at sapping the strength of the U.S. war effort and persuading Americans that our natural alliance was with the Axis, not against it.
-
-
The fight to keep democracy alive
- By Rex on 10-19-23
By: Rachel Maddow
-
Roosevelt Sweeps Nation
- FDR’s 1936 Landslide and the Triumph of the Liberal Ideal
- By: David Pietrusza
- Narrated by: Jack de Golia
- Length: 17 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Award-winning historian David Pietrusza boldly steers clear of the past narrative regarding Franklin Roosevelt’s unprecedented 1936 re-election landslide, weaving an enormously more intricate, ever more surprising tale of a polarized nation; of America’s most complex, calculating, and politically successful president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, at the very top of his Machiavellian game; and the unlocking of the puzzle of how our society, our politics, and our parties fitfully reinvented themselves.
-
-
Excellent read.
- By Keith D. Allan on 04-03-23
By: David Pietrusza
-
Justice on the Brink
- A Requiem for the Supreme Court
- By: Linda Greenhouse
- Narrated by: Beth Hicks
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Justice on the Brink, legendary journalist Linda Greenhouse gives us unique insight into a court under stress, providing the context and brilliant analysis readers of her work in The New York Times have come to expect. In a thrilling narrative, she recounts the twelve months when the court turned its back on its legacy and traditions, abandoning any effort to stay above and separate from politics.
-
-
A Must Read, Then A Must Act.
- By Brad and Janean on 11-29-21
By: Linda Greenhouse
-
Sedition Hunters
- How January 6th Broke the Justice System
- By: Ryan J. Reilly
- Narrated by: Ryan J. Reilly
- Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The January 6th attack is an unprecedented crime in American history. Sprawling and openly political, it can't be handled by the traditional rules and norms of law enforcement—threatening the very idea of justice and its role in society. A mass of online tipsters—"sedition hunters"—have mobilized, simultaneously providing the FBI with valuable intelligence. In this work of extraordinary reportage, Ryan Reilly gets to know would-be revolutionaries, obsessive online sleuths, and FBI agents, and shines a light on a justice system that's straining to maintain order in our polarized country.
-
-
Lost Opportunity
- By JenMarie66 on 10-21-23
By: Ryan J. Reilly
-
American Midnight
- The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis
- By: Adam Hochschild
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 15 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From legendary historian Adam Hochschild, a groundbreaking reassessment of the overlooked but startlingly resonant period between World War I and the Roaring Twenties, when the foundations of American democracy were threated by war, pandemic, and violence fueled by battles over race, immigration, and the rights of labor
-
-
Disturbing yet Reassuring
- By Sams95 on 11-18-22
By: Adam Hochschild
-
The Hardhat Riot
- Nixon, New York City, and the Dawn of the White Working-Class Revolution
- By: David Paul Kuhn
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In May 1970, four days after Kent State, construction workers chased students through downtown Manhattan, beating scores of protesters bloody. As hardhats clashed with hippies, it soon became clear that something larger was underway - Democrats were at war with themselves. In The Hardhat Riot, David Paul Kuhn tells the fateful story of when the white working class first turned against liberalism, when Richard Nixon seized the breach, and America was forever changed.
-
-
Beautifully written and deeply researched
- By Paula Pant on 02-02-23
By: David Paul Kuhn
-
Prequel
- An American Fight Against Fascism
- By: Rachel Maddow
- Narrated by: Rachel Maddow
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inspired by her research for the hit podcast Ultra, Rachel Maddow charts the rise of a wild American strain of authoritarianism that has been alive on the far-right edge of our politics for the better part of a century. Before and even after our troops had begun fighting abroad in World War II, a clandestine network flooded the country with disinformation aimed at sapping the strength of the U.S. war effort and persuading Americans that our natural alliance was with the Axis, not against it.
-
-
The fight to keep democracy alive
- By Rex on 10-19-23
By: Rachel Maddow
-
Roosevelt Sweeps Nation
- FDR’s 1936 Landslide and the Triumph of the Liberal Ideal
- By: David Pietrusza
- Narrated by: Jack de Golia
- Length: 17 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Award-winning historian David Pietrusza boldly steers clear of the past narrative regarding Franklin Roosevelt’s unprecedented 1936 re-election landslide, weaving an enormously more intricate, ever more surprising tale of a polarized nation; of America’s most complex, calculating, and politically successful president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, at the very top of his Machiavellian game; and the unlocking of the puzzle of how our society, our politics, and our parties fitfully reinvented themselves.
-
-
Excellent read.
- By Keith D. Allan on 04-03-23
By: David Pietrusza
-
Justice on the Brink
- A Requiem for the Supreme Court
- By: Linda Greenhouse
- Narrated by: Beth Hicks
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Justice on the Brink, legendary journalist Linda Greenhouse gives us unique insight into a court under stress, providing the context and brilliant analysis readers of her work in The New York Times have come to expect. In a thrilling narrative, she recounts the twelve months when the court turned its back on its legacy and traditions, abandoning any effort to stay above and separate from politics.
-
-
A Must Read, Then A Must Act.
- By Brad and Janean on 11-29-21
By: Linda Greenhouse
-
Sedition Hunters
- How January 6th Broke the Justice System
- By: Ryan J. Reilly
- Narrated by: Ryan J. Reilly
- Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The January 6th attack is an unprecedented crime in American history. Sprawling and openly political, it can't be handled by the traditional rules and norms of law enforcement—threatening the very idea of justice and its role in society. A mass of online tipsters—"sedition hunters"—have mobilized, simultaneously providing the FBI with valuable intelligence. In this work of extraordinary reportage, Ryan Reilly gets to know would-be revolutionaries, obsessive online sleuths, and FBI agents, and shines a light on a justice system that's straining to maintain order in our polarized country.
-
-
Lost Opportunity
- By JenMarie66 on 10-21-23
By: Ryan J. Reilly
-
I Alone Can Fix It
- Donald J. Trump's Catastrophic Final Year
- By: Carol Leonnig, Philip Rucker
- Narrated by: January LaVoy, Carol Leonnig, Philip Rucker
- Length: 19 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The true story of what took place in Donald Trump’s White House during a disastrous 2020 has never before been told in full. What was really going on around the president, as the government failed to contain the coronavirus and over half a million Americans perished? Who was influencing Trump after he refused to concede an election he had clearly lost and spread lies about election fraud? To answer these questions, Phil Rucker and Carol Leonnig reveal a dysfunctional and bumbling presidency’s inner workings in unprecedented, stunning detail.
-
-
The Facts are There
- By Thomas E. Jones on 07-23-21
By: Carol Leonnig, and others
-
Betrayal
- The Final Act of the Trump Show
- By: Jonathan Karl
- Narrated by: Jonathan Karl
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nobody is in a better position to tell the story of the shocking final chapter of the Trump show than Jonathan Karl. As the reporter who has known Donald Trump longer than any other White House correspondent, Karl told the story of Trump’s rise in the New York Times best seller Front Row at the Trump Show. Now he tells the story of Trump’s downfall, complete with riveting behind-the-scenes accounts of some of the darkest days in the history of the American presidency.
-
-
A movie plot you know but still manages to impress
- By lorrrraaaaine on 11-18-21
By: Jonathan Karl
-
Pillar of Fire
- America in the King Years, 1963-65
- By: Taylor Branch
- Narrated by: Joe Morton, C.C.H. Pounder
- Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the second volume of his three-part history, a monumental trilogy that began with Parting the Waters, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, Taylor Branch portrays the Civil Rights Movement at its zenith, recounting the climactic struggles as they commanded the national stage. Beginning with the Nation of Islam and conflict over racial separatism, Pillar of Fire takes the listener to Mississippi and Alabama: Birmingham, the murder of Medgar Evers, the "March on Washington," the Civil Rights Act, and more.
-
-
the audio does not match with the book
- By Katie on 10-09-14
By: Taylor Branch
-
Blowback
- A Warning to Save Democracy from the Next Trump
- By: Miles Taylor
- Narrated by: Miles Taylor
- Length: 12 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Donald Trump will be president again, whether he is on the ballot or not. That is because Trumpism is overtaking the Republican Party and will mount a vigorous comeback, potentially in the hands of a savvier successor. This prophecy will come true, according to Miles Taylor, if we do not learn the lessons of the recent past. With the 2024 election approaching, the formerly “Anonymous” official is back with bombshell revelations and a sobering national forecast. Taylor predicts what could happen inside “Trump 2.0,” the White House of a more competent and more formidable copycat.
-
-
We will only have ourselves to blame if we sink into autocracy
- By MS on 07-23-23
By: Miles Taylor
-
Nixonland
- The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America
- By: Rick Perlstein
- Narrated by: Stephen R. Thorne
- Length: 36 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From one of America's most talented historians and winner of a LA Times Book Prize comes a brilliant new account of Richard Nixon that reveals the riveting backstory to the red state/blue state resentments that divide our nation today. Told with urgency and sharp political insight, Nixonland recaptures America's turbulent 1960s and early 1970s and reveals how Richard Nixon rose from the political grave to seize and hold the presidency.
-
-
A 5-Star Book Injured by the Narrator
- By Frank on 08-12-09
By: Rick Perlstein
-
White Lies
- The Double Life of Walter F. White and America's Darkest Secret
- By: A.J. Baime
- Narrated by: Wayne Carr
- Length: 12 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Walter F. White led two lives: one as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance and the NAACP in the early twentieth century; the other as a white newspaperman who covered lynching crimes in the Deep South at the blazing height of racial violence. Born mixed race and with very fair skin and straight hair, White was able to “pass” for white. He leveraged this ambiguity as a reporter, bringing to light the darkest crimes in America and helping to plant the seeds of the civil rights movement.
-
-
A difficult but essential read
- By Heather Wellington on 05-21-22
By: A.J. Baime
-
Waging a Good War
- A Military History of the Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1968
- By: Thomas E. Ricks
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 14 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thomas E. Ricks offers an utterly new perspective on America’s greatest moral revolution—the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s—and its legacy today. While the Movement has become synonymous with Martin Luther King Jr.’s ethos of nonviolence, Ricks draws on his deep knowledge of tactics and strategy to advance a surprising but revelatory idea: the greatest victories for Black Americans of the past century were won not by idealism alone, but through recruiting, training, discipline, and organization—the hallmarks of any successful military campaign.
-
-
I was born and raised in Alabama. Jim Crow Era.
- By Moses Pitts on 10-06-22
By: Thomas E. Ricks
-
Carry Me Home
- Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution
- By: Diane McWhorter
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 28 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"The Year of Birmingham", 1963, was a cataclysmic turning point in America's long civil rights struggle. Child demonstrators faced down police dogs and fire hoses in huge nonviolent marches against segregation. Ku Klux Klansmen retaliated by bombing the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, killing four young Black girls. Diane McWhorter, daughter of a prominent Birmingham family, weaves together police and FBI records, archival documents, interviews with Black activists and Klansmen, and personal memories into an extraordinary narrative....
-
-
A Well Told History
- By By Aaliyah on 04-23-22
By: Diane McWhorter
-
G-Man (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
- J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century
- By: Beverly Gage
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 36 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A major new biography of J Edgar Hoover that draws from never-before-seen sources to create a groundbreaking portrait of a colossus who dominated half a century of American history and planted the seeds for much of today's conservative political landscape.
-
-
Amazing!
- By Jessica Armas on 12-06-22
By: Beverly Gage
-
You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train
- A Personal History of Our Times
- By: Howard Zinn
- Narrated by: David Strathairn
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States, tells his personal stories about more than 30 years of fighting for social change, from teaching at Spelman College to recent protests against war. A former bombardier in World War II, Zinn emerged in the civil rights movement as a powerful voice for justice. Although he's a fierce critic, he gives us reason to hope that by learning from history and engaging politically, we can make a difference in the world.
-
-
mind blowing
- By WILLIAM on 11-27-19
By: Howard Zinn
-
Parting the Waters
- America in the King Years 1954-63
- By: Taylor Branch
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi, Janina Edwards
- Length: 45 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hailed as the most masterful story ever told of the American civil rights movement, Parting the Waters is destined to endure for generations. Moving from the fiery political baptism of Martin Luther King, Jr., to the corridors of Camelot where the Kennedy brothers weighed demands for justice against the deceptions of J. Edgar Hoover, here is a vivid tapestry of America, torn and finally transformed by a revolutionary struggle unequaled since the Civil War.
-
-
Excellent
- By Judith Princz on 05-15-19
By: Taylor Branch
-
The Shattering
- America in the 1960s
- By: Kevin Boyle
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 18 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On July 4, 1961, the rising middle-class families of a Chicago neighborhood gathered before their flag-bedecked houses, a confident vision of the American Dream. That vision was shattered over the following decade, its inequities at home and arrogance abroad challenged by powerful civil rights and antiwar movements. Assassinations, social violence, and the blowback of a "silent majority" shredded the American fabric.
-
-
The insights of this period are enlightening
- By recreational skier on 01-17-22
By: Kevin Boyle
What listeners say about Mayday 1971
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Robert from Santa Cruz
- 12-31-20
Untold story of the Vietnam War era, told well
The definitive account of the largest mass arrest in American history. Not only has Lawrence Roberts uncovered lots of incredible episodes - like the extreme measures taken by the Nixon White House to squash the demonstrations - but he's written it like a political thriller. The narrator does a superb job, telling the story with energy. His imitation of Nixon's voice is spot on. Highly recommended.
had told the
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Tim Butz
- 01-24-21
A great historical narrative
Though this historical accounting takes place in 1971, it holds valuable lessons for our current times. This is not a dry presentation of history, but a well written and narrated account of an important and under-reported piece of recent American history.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!