The Open Society and Its Enemies cover art

The Open Society and Its Enemies

New One-Volume Edition

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Thousands of incredible audiobooks and podcasts to take wherever you go.
Immerse yourself in a world of storytelling with the Plus Catalogue - unlimited listening to thousands of select audiobooks, podcasts and Audible Originals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Open Society and Its Enemies

By: Karl Popper
Narrated by: Liam Gerrard
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Buy Now for £25.99

Buy Now for £25.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

One of the most important books of the twentieth century, Karl Popper's The Open Society and Its Enemies is an uncompromising defense of liberal democracy and a powerful attack on the intellectual origins of totalitarianism. Popper was born in 1902 to a Viennese family of Jewish origin. He taught in Austria until 1937, when he emigrated to New Zealand in anticipation of the Nazi annexation of Austria the following year, and he settled in England in 1949. Before the annexation, Popper had written mainly about the philosophy of science, but from 1938 until the end of the Second World War he focused his energies on political philosophy, seeking to diagnose the intellectual origins of German and Soviet totalitarianism. The Open Society and Its Enemies was the result.

An immediate sensation when it was first published in two volumes in 1945, Popper's monumental achievement has attained legendary status on both the Left and Right and is credited with inspiring anticommunist dissidents during the Cold War. Arguing that the spirit of free, critical inquiry that governs scientific investigation should also apply to politics, Popper traces the roots of an opposite, authoritarian tendency to a tradition represented by Plato, Marx, and Hegel.

©1994 The University of Klagenfurt/Karl Popper Library (P)2019 Tantor
Greek & Roman History Political Science Politics & Government
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Myth of the Framework cover art
Conjectures and Refutations cover art
The Origins of Totalitarianism cover art
The Human Condition (Second Edition) cover art
Philosophical Investigations cover art
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions cover art
The Theory of Moral Sentiments cover art
The Fatal Conceit cover art
10 Books Every Conservative Must Read cover art
Being and Time cover art
Utilitarianism/On Liberty cover art
Critique of Pure Reason cover art
I Am a Strange Loop cover art
Return of the Strong Gods cover art
The Wealth of Nations cover art
Philosophy Simplified cover art

What listeners say about The Open Society and Its Enemies

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    55
  • 4 Stars
    9
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    44
  • 4 Stars
    9
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    48
  • 4 Stars
    6
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great defensive of the fragility and importance of democracy

A great overview of the philosophical frameworks that have led to both totalitarian tyranny, and enlightened democracy

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Top top top material!

This book is a must-read or must-listen for anybody who is interested in social and political progress of humanity. 🤯

Also, the narrator's performance is excellent! 👌🏽

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

One of the best reads of the 20th century

A must read in a time when freedom is under attack by illiberal forces.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Amazing narrator

Content wise, the book is mind blowing. But in an audiobook it would be only possible to sustain it with a great narrator. And they did it. The narrator gave a character to the piece. A mater narrator to a masterpiece.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Enlightening

In the context of Brexit, China, USA, Africa, the shifting political sands, #BLM, international health concetns and the post-truth world being fought over, this text seemed relevant and still addresses some of the fundamental questions of today - as historicism and its revisionists rise and fall. The clamour for attention in the instantaneous world of the now brings some of Popper's observations into a sharpened clarity and from the totalitarianist ethics of Plato to the legacy of a post-industrialized Hegel, it is maybe time to look anew at the emerging dialogue between Maoist Communism & Jesuit Liberalism as a dialectic.

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
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Highly recommended

A great book about political philosophy and the foundations of a free society. Very well performed audiobook

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!