Corruptible
Who Gets Power and How it Changes Us
Failed to add items
Sorry, we are unable to add the item because your shopping cart is already at capacity.
Add to basket failed.
Please try again later
Add to Wish List failed.
Please try again later
Remove from Wish List failed.
Please try again later
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.
Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
Corruptible
Narrated by:
Brian Klaas
Buy Now for $26.48
-
Narrated by:
-
Brian Klaas
-
By:
-
Brian Klaas
About this listen
To answer these questions, Corruptible draws on over 500 interviews with some of the world's noblest and dirtiest leaders, from presidents and philanthropists to rebels, cultists, and dictators. It also makes use of a wealth of counter-intuitive examples from history and social science: You'll meet the worst bioterrorist in American history, hit the slopes with a ski instructor who once ruled Iraq, have breakfast with the yogurt kingpin of Madagascar, learn what bees and wasps can teach us about corruption, find out why our Stone Age brains cause us to choose bad leaders, and learn why the inability of chimpanzees to play baseball is central to the development of human hierarchies.
Corruptible will make you challenge basic assumptions about how you can rise to become a leader and what might happen to your head when you get there. It also provides a roadmap to avoiding classic temptations, suggesting a series of reforms that would ensure that better people get into power, while ensuring that power purifies rather than corrupts.
'ILLUMINATING' - Adam Grant, bestselling author of Think Again
'PASSIONATE, INSIGHTFUL, AND OCCASIONLLY JAW-DROPPING' - Peter Frankopan, bestselling author of The Silk Roads
(P) 2021 Hodder & Stoughton Limited©2021 Brian Klaas
Critic Reviews
Illuminating . . . reveals why some people and systems are more likely to be corrupted by power than others (Adam Grant)
Passionate, insightful, and occasionally jaw-dropping . . . Corruptible sets out the story of the intoxicating lure of power - and how it has shaped the modern world (Peter Frankopan)
A brilliant exploration . . . This book builds Brian Klaas' reputation, offering an essential guide through our world of democratic decay, corruption, and cronyism (Dan Snow)
Klaas is the rarest of finds: a political scientist who can also tell great stories. He mixes memorable anecdotes with stern analysis to tackle one of the biggest questions of all: do we have to be ruled by bad people? (Peter Pomerantsev)
A GPS system for navigating a world increasingly full of illiberal democracies, modernised dictatorships, and populists who care only for power . . . The power-hungry don't ask why, they only ask why not (Garry Kasparov, Chairman of the Renew Democracy Initiative and the Human Rights Foundation)
A fascinating, fun read . . . Klaas has striking insights, presents impeccable science accessibly, and tells terrific stories-all with great writing and wonderfully mordant humor (Robert Sapolsky, author of Behave)
The Freakonomics of political science (Max Boot, Washington Post columnist)
A MAGNIFICENT BOOK THAT IS AS RIVETING AS A CRIME STORY (Peter Turchin, author of Ultrasociety)
An extraordinary interrogation of the workings of power . . . A critical book for these troubling times. A must read! (Eddie S. Glaude Jr., author of Begin Again)
Engrossing, thought-provoking, and funny . . . An important exploration of how ordinary people can keep leadership out of the hands of monsters (Heather Cox Richardson, author of How the South Won the Civil War)
Rich insights and fascinating observations . . . [Shines] a light on recent efforts to ensure that the corrupt don't get power, and the incorruptible do (Richard Stengel)
Surrounded by people, companies and organisations that abuse their power, we've never needed Brian Klaas's penetrating study more. He has amassed a rich collection of evidence to offer some hope that we can pick better leaders and hold them to account (Polly Toynbee)
Powerful, authoritative, humane and utterly compelling. This is a book of big ideas, written with nuance and dynamism. When you turn the last page, you realise that you'll never look at the world quite the same way again (Ian Dunt)
Fun and entertaining . . . With a deft literary hand, Klaas describes how positions that offer power and possibilities for enrichment feature incentives that attract the wrong sort of people (Washington Post)
A compelling enquiry into power, its abuse, and why the wrong people wield it, by a learned and invigorating storyteller (Nigella Lawson)
thanks Dr Klass, you helped reinforce my trust in the human condition. I learnt a lot.
I urge you to read this. insightful, fascinating
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is a must read.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Interesting, captivating and astonishing.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Thoughtful, well researched, provocative
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
In depth and considered
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.