Democracy at Work

Shawn Compton's technically perfect narration begs the question of how much vocal personality is necessary for a learning audio to be effective. He applies enough tone and pacing variation to make every sentence clear; his phrasing patterns don't sound repetitive or mechanical. But his approach removes the performer from the mix--he's reading rather than interacting with the material as an individual, thus leaving out a personal component that many nonfiction listeners have come to expect. But this is writing that has its own personality: The author's radical socialism would do away with capitalist control and profiteering in commercial enterprises. Workers would own the means of production and democratically design the workflow, direct sales strategy, and distribute profits among themselves. These are provocative remedies for the flaws he sees in capitalism. T.W. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine