
The Small and the Mighty
Twelve Unsung Americans Who Changed the Course of History, from the Founding to the Civil Rights Movement
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Narrated by:
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Sharon McMahon
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By:
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Sharon McMahon
About this listen
A #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
From America’s favorite government teacher, a “fascinating and fun” (Adam Grant) portrait of twelve ordinary Americans whose courage formed the character of our country.
In The Small and the Mighty, Sharon McMahon proves that the most remarkable Americans are often ordinary people who didn’t make it into the textbooks. Not the presidents, but the telephone operators. Not the aristocrats, but the schoolteachers. Through meticulous research, she discovers history’s unsung characters and brings their rich, riveting stories to light for the first time.
You’ll meet a woman astride a white horse riding down Pennsylvania Ave, a young boy detained at a Japanese incarceration camp, a formerly enslaved woman on a mission to reunite with her daughter, a poet on a train, and a teacher who learns to work with her enemies. More than one thing is bombed, and multiple people surprisingly become rich. Some rich with money, and some wealthy with things that matter more.
This is a book about what really made America – and Americans – great. McMahon’s cast of improbable champions will become familiar friends, lighting the path we journey in our quest to make the world more just, peaceful, good, and free.
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Better for reading vs listening
- By Shara D. Webb on 08-14-24
By: Sami Sage, and others
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Reconnected
- How 7 Screen-Free Weeks with Monks and Amish Farmers Helped Me Recover the Lost Art of Being Human
- By: Carlos Whittaker
- Narrated by: Carlos Whittaker
- Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Blending wisdom from the past, practices of intentionality and community, and Whittaker's signature engaging communication style, Reconnected will inspire and equip you to reset your life in a tech-saturated world. It's time to take back control of your life from technology and recover the lost art of being human. You were made for more. This is how you start living again.
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Your voice matters
- By Anonymous User on 10-08-24
By: Carlos Whittaker
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When the World Tips Over
- By: Jandy Nelson
- Narrated by: Michael Crouch, Alex McKenna, Briggon Snow, and others
- Length: 17 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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The Fall siblings live in hot Northern California wine country, where the sun pours out of the sky, and the devil winds blow so hard they whip the sense right out of your head. Years ago, the Fall kids’ father mysteriously disappeared, cracking the family into pieces.
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Just a great book!!
- By denise chaney on 11-12-24
By: Jandy Nelson
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Rebranding the Donkeys and the Elephants!
- By: Stoddard Farnsworth
- Narrated by: Virtual Voice
- Length: 42 mins
- Unabridged
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There are two major political parties in the US, the Democrats and the Republicans, which are also known in American visual culture through Nast's depictions of them as donkeys and elephants, and this bipartisan relationship has dominated American politics since the mid-nineteenth century. Despite each having quite different origins from how they are depicted today, meaning that most would be surprised to find out that the Democrats, the oldest political party on the planet, were divided over slavery issues less than two centuries ago and that the Republicans started as an anti-slavery, ...
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Revenge of the Tipping Point
- Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering
- By: Malcolm Gladwell
- Narrated by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Why is Miami… Miami? What does the heartbreaking fate of the cheetah tell us about the way we raise our children? Why do Ivy League schools care so much about sports? What is the Magic Third, and what does it mean for racial harmony? In this provocative new work, Malcolm Gladwell returns to the subject of social epidemics and tipping points, this time with the aim of explaining the dark side of contagious phenomena. Through a series of gripping stories, Gladwell traces the rise of a new and troubling form of social engineering
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Lame
- By Kindle Customer on 10-09-24
By: Malcolm Gladwell
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Good Reasonable People
- The Psychology Behind America's Dangerous Divide
- By: Keith Payne
- Narrated by: Keith Payne
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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There has been much written about the impact of polarization on elections, political parties, and policy outcomes. But Keith Payne’s goal is more personal: to focus on what our divisions mean for us as individuals, as families, and as communities. This book is about how ordinary people think about politics, why talking about it is so hard, and how we can begin to mend the personal bonds that are fraying for so many of us.
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Good path to happiness in a world of Trumpsters.
- By Keith Olsen on 03-20-25
By: Keith Payne
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The Warmth of Other Suns
- The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
- By: Isabel Wilkerson
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 22 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. Wilkerson compares this epic migration to the migrations of other peoples in history. She interviewed more than a thousand people, and gained access to new data and official records, to write this definitive and vividly dramatic account of how these American journeys unfolded, altering our cities, our country, and ourselves.
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Superior non-fiction
- By Lila on 05-20-11
By: Isabel Wilkerson
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Be Ready When the Luck Happens
- A Memoir
- By: Ina Garten
- Narrated by: Ina Garten
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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In her long-awaited memoir, Ina Garten—aka the Barefoot Contessa, author of thirteen bestselling cookbooks, beloved Food Network personality, Instagram sensation, and cultural icon—shares her personal story with those hungry for a seat at her table. Here, for the first time, Ina Garten presents an intimate, entertaining, and inspiring account of her remarkable journey. Ina’s gift is to make everything look easy, yet all her accomplishments have been the result of hard work, audacious choices, and exquisite attention to detail.
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I love that Ina narrated it.
- By Tricia on 10-06-24
By: Ina Garten
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Prequel
- An American Fight Against Fascism
- By: Rachel Maddow
- Narrated by: Rachel Maddow
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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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.
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The fight to keep democracy alive
- By Rex on 10-19-23
By: Rachel Maddow
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Democracy Awakening
- Notes on the State of America
- By: Heather Cox Richardson
- Narrated by: Heather Cox Richardson
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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At a time when the very foundations of American democracy seem under threat, the lessons of the past offer a road map for navigating a moment of political crisis. In Democracy Awakening, acclaimed historian Heather Cox Richardson delves into the tumultuous journey of American democracy, tracing the roots of Donald Trump’s “authoritarian experiment” to the earliest days of the republic.
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We’d be in a much better position if everyone read this
- By Jeffrey Schwartz on 10-01-23
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I Cheerfully Refuse
- By: Leif Enger
- Narrated by: David Aaron Baker
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Set in a not-too-distant America, I Cheerfully Refuse is the tale of a bereaved and pursued musician embarking under sail on a sentient Lake Superior in search of his departed, deeply beloved, bookselling wife. Rainy, an endearing bear of an Orphean narrator, seeks refuge in the harbors, fogs, and remote islands of the inland sea. Encountering lunatic storms and rising corpses from the warming depths, Rainy finds on land an increasingly desperate and illiterate people, a malignant billionaire ruling class, crumbled infrastructure, and a lawless society.
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Just Ho-Hum for me
- By Bailey Rose on 08-13-24
By: Leif Enger
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Enough
- By: Cassidy Hutchinson
- Narrated by: Cassidy Hutchinson
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Ever since a childhood visit to Washington, DC, Cassidy Hutchinson aspired to serve her country in government. Raised in a working-class family with a military background, she was the first in her immediate family to graduate from college. Despite having no ties to Washington, Hutchinson landed a vital position at the center of the Trump White House.
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Painful
- By Melissa C. on 09-28-23
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James
- A Novel
- By: Percival Everett
- Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
- Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.
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Can we ever be free
- By J. Stirling on 04-04-24
By: Percival Everett
What listeners say about The Small and the Mighty
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- Sarah Over
- 12-06-24
Conflicted
Sharon McMahon is amazing. As a governerd I have absolutely enjoyed her Instagram and in depth explanation of all things government. She is unbiased, concise, and fair when it comes to politics. Here's why I'm conflicted.
I was so eager to listen to this book. And the stories are worth hearing. But as the author and narrator of this Audible, I struggled to listen. She tries to make an impact with her voice and it was ultimately too distracting for me to continue. This is not a criticism of her work as her book is thoroughly researched and put together in a way the reader or listener can follow along. This is a critique of the way it was read which (for me) had me turning the Audible off. I look forward to reading the physical book.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Emily James
- 10-30-24
Good stories, but hard to follow
I absolutely love Sharon, and these stories are so important to share. I am very glad. I listened to this, but I often found it very hard to follow. I also have a physical copy of the book and tried reading some of that as well. It did not make it less confusing. The author jumps around a lot and mentions so many people that it is impossible to keep them all straight.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Kindle Customer
- 10-08-24
Absolutely Beautiful!
I was listening to this book between helping customers at work, but I had to stop because I kept crying. It's absolutely beautiful and so very inspiring. I hope to be part of the continued progress of this great country.
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- Stephanie Kohl
- 10-02-24
Informative, Moving and Riveting
I have been trying to not listen in one day to Sharon's amazing storytelling. I wanted to process the information and take time to really think of each hero. There is so much knowledge I learned with such beauty in each untold story. We can all do something- not everything- but something to make America a better place.... Really, to make the world a better place. And this book shares about those who did what they could, with the resources they have, to change the course of our country and world. Do yourself a favor and read this book.
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- Kelley
- 10-05-24
A National Treasure
If you are on the fence about hearing Sharon read you this story, don’t be.
This is the book we all need, written by the only person who could have given it to us. Sharon McMahon is a national treasure and should be protected at all costs. She has single-handedly taken me from feeling shame over America and our current political landscape, to instead feeling an overwhelming sense of pride in my country and her people.
As she says, “And it is us, the small and the mighty, who make America great. Not again, but always.”
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- C. Gunnerson
- 10-06-24
Courage and compassion of the 12 people.
I disliked that the book ended. I want more. It sparked a desire in me to do more to make a difference. I’m so tired of the hate being spread and was ready to hear something uplifting. Thank you.
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- Natalie
- 10-02-24
A call to action and a call to hope
If you are feeling like the current political situation is hopeless and hopelessly divided, this is the book for you! We (you and I) are the solution. We are the plan. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We can choose hope and choose to do the next right thing just like the amazing unknown (until now) historical figures whose stories are told in this book. I have followed Sharon McMahon (@sharonsaysso on IG) for a LONG time and have been a part of her book group since its founding. She makes learning about history, and government and civics entertaining. (Which is saying something because history - and English - were my least favorite subjects in high school.) And she sites her sources! And challenges you to move outside your bubble.
The book doesn't just teach us history in an engaging way. The book is a call to action. "America at her best is just. She is peaceful. She is good. And she she is free. And it is us [yes, I know, Mrs Hawkes, my 8th grade grammar teacher... it probably should say 'it is we'], the small and the mighty, who make America great." "None of us can do it all. But all of us can do something. And it might as well be the next needed thing." "The character you've been cultivating will be called upon, and when that moment comes, whenever it is, I hope you'll rise to it." "Hope is a choice that we make each morning, and we do not have the luxury of hopelessness if we want to see progress."
Sharon narrates the audiobook and it sounds like she is just talking to you and telling you a story on IG or her podcast ("Here's Where It Gets Interesting"). I have to look at the print version to see if she is inserting into the audio version some of the funny things that she says. Also, there are plenty of inside jokes for long-time governerds (the "ho" is silent, for example.).
I am planning to read it again.
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- Brandon K.
- 10-03-24
Remember that your little part matters
Read this book and let it help you remember that your small part matters. That history was changed and will be changed by ordinary people that most will never hear of.
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- Becky
- 09-27-24
Wonderful!!!!
Sharon, Thank you so much for a brilliant book!!! The history is hard to hear but the strength in the people you chose give us motivation to stand up for our own causes.
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- Krista T
- 09-28-24
The most uplifting book you'll ever read!
Hearing this book read by Sharon herself made it even more magical than it already was. Hearing stories of people who never set out to be heros, but certainly are, made my tear up multiple times. I am amazed, encouraged, and absolutely blown away by the courage and tenacity of ordinary Americans who did extraordinary things. Knowing their stories will make each of us better, more compassionate people. Let us all be just, peaceful, good, and free.
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