New Releases by Chris Hedges

With intimate and harrowing portraits of the human consequences of oppression, occupation, and violence experienced in Palestine today, Pulitzer-prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges issues a call to action urging us to bear witness and engage with the ongoing humanitarian crisis. Hedges wrote the first section of the book when he was in Ramallah in July 2024, and he draws from his experience doing extensive reporting from the Middle East, including Gaza, for the New York Times. A Genocide Foretold confronts the stark realities of life under siege in Gaza and the heroic effort ordinary Palestinians are waging to resist and survive. Weaving together personal stories, historical context, and unflinching journalism, Chris Hedges provides an intimate portrait of systemic oppression, occupation, and violence. The book includes chapters on: What life is like in Gaza City and Ramallah in the midst of approaching bombs and gunfire. The history of the dispossession of Palestinians of their land in relation to the ideology of Zionism. A portrait of Amr, a 17-year-old highschool student who is forced to evacuate his village with his family. Psychoanalysis of the state of permanent war that has led to the destruction of hospitals, telecommunications centers, governmental buildings, roads, homes universities, schools, and libraries and archaeological and heritage sites in Gaza. The ways in which the collective retribution against innocents is a familiar tactic employed by colonial rulers. A heartbreaking final chapter called “Letter to the Children of Gaza.” Hedges, the Pulitzer Prize–winning former Middle East Bureau Chief for The New York Times, is an Arabic speaker who spent seven years covering the conflict. He wrote the first section of the book when he was in Ramallah in July 2024. A Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist, he is also the author of two bestselling books, War is a Force that Gives us Meaning and The Greatest Evil is War. In A Genocide Foretold he writes with an emotional depth that can only be achieved from spending many years on the ground in Gaza and the West Bank. A Genocide Foretold is a call to action, urging us to bear witness and engage with the ongoing humanitarian crisis.

«L’ultima volta che ho visto mia suocera è stata la mattina in cui sono partito per il checkpoint di Rafah, per raggiungere l’Egitto. Mi ha sorriso, ha abbracciato mio figlio dicendogli: “Quando la guerra finirà, per favore, vieni a trovarmi”. La guerra non è finita. E lei è morta. Dopo una vita trascorsa in tende e campi profughi, finalmente è entrata in una casa stabile. La casa di Dio.» Questo libro è la cronaca limpida e feroce di una guerra senza fine, raccontata in presa diretta, dal primo giorno. È la testimonianza di una lotta per la sopravvivenza, nel corso di un viaggio dal nord della Striscia di Gaza fino al confine con l’Egitto. L’autore di queste pagine attraversa la sua terra mentre l’assedio e i bombardamenti israeliani si fanno sempre più intensi. Con lui ci sono il figlio quindicenne, Yasser, e la suocera settantenne, malata, che si muove su una sedia a rotelle («Ha sofferto molto durante l’esodo. I soldati gridavano, minacciando di sparare se ci fossimo fermati. Mio figlio spingeva la sedia a rotelle mentre io sostenevo il corpo fragile di mia suocera. Il terreno sconnesso la faceva sobbalzare in avanti, in più di un’occasione è caduta a terra. In altri momenti, bisognava portarla in braccio perché la strada era piena di fango, distrutta, cosparsa di corpi e intrisa di sangue.») Il 5 ottobre scorso, due giorni prima dell’attacco criminale di Hamas contro Israele, Atef Abu Saif lasciava Ramallah, in Cisgiordania, dove vive con la famiglia, per raggiungere Gaza. Doveva essere un breve viaggio di lavoro e l’occasione per andare a trovare i famigliari, che vivevano lì. Invece rimarrà intrappolato nella guerra più devastante di cui abbia memoria. Mentre ai giornalisti e ai fotografi di tutto il mondo è proibito entrare a Gaza e mentre i pochi che dall’interno provano a raccontarci ciò che accade rischiano la vita (quando questo libro va in stampa, sono 122 i giornalisti uccisi a Gaza), il Diario di un genocidio rappresenta un documento imprescindibile per onorare la verità dei fatti e per impedire che si dica: noi non sapevamo.

普立茲新聞獎戰地記者，報導足跡超過50個國家， 深入戰爭第一現場，寫下對戰爭之惡的反思。 赫吉斯是美國新聞記者、長老會牧師、作家和評論家。在他的早期職業生涯中，赫吉斯在中美洲擔任《基督教科學箴言報》、NPR和《達拉斯晨報》的自由戰地記者。 曾在超過五十個國家報導戰爭消息的著名戰地記者與普立茲新聞報導獎得主赫吉斯，因公開抨擊美國侵略伊拉克，而遭到所任職的紐約時報譴責，他秉持道出真相是記者的天職，選擇離開紐時。他一向以深思熟慮又挑釁的刀筆針砭社會不公與戰爭暴行，因此贏得卓越記者的一致好評。赫吉斯亦曾受頒國際特赦組織全球人權新聞獎。 自2008年起，更是以小搏大持續強力批判企業寡頭壟斷與極權資本主義（totalitarian capitalism）。洛杉磯新聞俱樂部形容他是「99%的捍衛者，1%的死對頭」，頒給他2009年與2011年年度線上記者。赫吉斯講真話、重良知、思想深厚、反應敏銳準確，至今已出版14本書。 他當然不是天真的理想主義者，在中東擔任戰地記者時曾遭綁架當過人質；在科索沃報導種族屠殺，親眼看到一個接一個村莊遭到完全的摧毀；在拉丁美洲報導戰爭消息，見識到美國政府為獨裁者撐腰，導致生靈塗炭。說出一般人不願聽的真相，不會受到歡迎，但他選擇說真相，因為他以為不說真相、保持沉默是自我毀滅。 記者的筆可以是思想的劍 《戰爭是最大的惡》是一部用血淚寫成的反戰著作。 赫吉斯以出入世界各地戰爭第一現場的報導和對於士兵、居民、受難者的採訪，推論岀戰爭的惡，筆下鏗鏘有力，令人動容。 「戰爭摧毀所有維繫和培育生命的系統：家庭、經濟、文化、政治、環境和社會。只要戰爭開打，沒有人知道接下來會發生什麼事、戰爭會如何發展，也沒人曉得戰爭會如何導致軍隊和國家走向自殺式的愚行……世上沒有什麼正義的戰爭。沒有。就連二次世界大戰也不是，但二戰如今已被洗白、神格化，用來宣揚美國的英雄主義、純潔和善良。」 「戰爭的第一堂課是我們個人都不算什麼。我們成了數字、砲灰、物件。以往神聖而珍貴的生命變成毫無意義，在戰神貪得無厭的需索下犧牲。」 戰爭的創傷永遠不會癒合。我們無法逃避那些邪惡， 經歷戰爭的人，往往以酒和藥品自我毀滅。 戰爭裡有受害者，可是受害者有兩種，一種是有價值的，一種是沒有價值的。誰死得有價值誰沒有，誰是人誰不是人，則是由政客和資本家決定的。其中的偽善讓人瞠目結舌，以前入侵伊拉克的政客，現在卻要對俄羅斯追究戰爭罪。 戰爭裡有無數的掮客，他們眼裡沒有人命、看不到血流漂杵，也對妻離子散的家庭無動於衷。戰爭就是一門好生意。 在戰爭裡有殺人和謀殺，對手無寸鐵的人下手就是謀殺，比如說美國支持的印尼政府於1965發動內戰，剷除國內的共產黨和異議人士。數百萬人被謀殺。 戰場上的士兵必須欺騙自己的良心。美國宛如宗教信仰一般的霸權主義，才是這些戰爭的影武者。 惡一直如影隨形。那是因為我們知道那是惡的， 也因為我們知道那是惡的，所以我們要反抗。在反抗中，我們才得到救贖。

An unflinching indictment of the horror and obscenity of war by one of our finest war correspondents. Drawn from experience and interviews by Pulitzer-prize-winner Chris Hedges, this book looks at the hidden costs of war, what it does to individuals, families, communities and nations. In fifteen short chapters, Chris Hedges astonishes us with his clear and cogent argument against war, not on philosophical grounds or through moral arguments, but in an irrefutable stream of personal encounters with the victims of war, from veterans and parents to gravely wounded American serviceman who served in the Iraq War, to survivors of the Holocaust, to soldiers in the Falklands War, among others. Hedges reported from Sarajevo, and was in the Balkans to witness the collapse of the Soviet Union. In 2002 he published War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning, which the Los Angeles Times described as “the best kind of war journalism… bitterly poetic and ruthlessly philosophical” and the New York Times called “a brilliant, thoughtful, timely, and unsettling book.” In the twenty years since, Hedges has not wanted to write another book on the subject of war—until now, with the outbreak of war in Ukraine. It is important again to be reminded who are the victors of the spoils of war and of other unerring truths, not only in this war but in all modern wars, where civilians are always the main victims, and the tools and methods of war are capable of so much destruction it boggles the mind. This book is an unflinching indictment of the horror and obscenity of war by one of our finest war correspondents.

Il y a une quarantaine d’années, lorsque des télévangélistes américains – tels Pat Robertson – se sont mis à hurler sur les ondes que les États-Unis deviendraient une nation et un empire chrétien, les esprits cultivés souriaient. Ce langage passait alors pour du racolage commercial, de l’esbroufe ou des coups de gueule sans conséquence. Aujourd’hui, l’influence politique de la droite radicale évangélique est devenue incontestable aux États-Unis. Près d’un tiers des Américains y adhèrent, à divers degrés. Elle possède des écoles, des journaux et des radios. Ses membres ont largement soutenu Donald Trump, et ils ne sont pas étrangers à l’assaut du Capitole de janvier 2021. Son langage autoritaire et ses appels à la domination totale ne sauraient donc plus passer pour des hyperboles. Chris Hedges, journaliste réputé et lui-même pasteur presbytérien, juxtapose habilement enquêtes de terrain et réflexions historiques ou théologiques. Il dévoile ce mouvement et présente les motivations de ceux et celles qui y adhèrent, nous révélant leurs souffrances et leurs aspirations, ainsi que les ressorts idéologiques fascisants de cette droite religieuse. Un tableau réaliste et précis d’une réalité qui glace le sang.

A powerfully moving book that “could make graspable why today’s prisons are contemporary slave plantations” (Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple), giving voice to the poorest among us and laying bare the cruelty of a penal system that too often defines their lives. Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Chris Hedges has taught courses in drama, literature, philosophy, and history since 2013 in the college degree program offered by Rutgers University at East Jersey State Prison and other New Jersey prisons. In his first class at East Jersey State Prison, where students read and discussed plays by Amiri Baraka and August Wilson, among others, his class set out to write a play of their own. In writing the play, Caged, which would run for a month in 2018 to sold-out audiences at The Passage Theatre in Trenton, New Jersey, and later be published, students gave words to the grief and suffering they and their families have endured, as well as to their hopes and dreams. The class’s artistic and personal discovery, as well as transformation, is chronicled in heartbreaking detail in Our Class. This “magnificent” (Cornel West, author of Race Matters) book gives a human face and a voice to those our society too often demonizes and abandons. It exposes the terrible crucible and injustice of America’s penal system and the struggle by those trapped within its embrace to live lives of dignity, meaning, and purpose.

"This book could change everything. It could change our minds. It could buttress our hearts. It could make graspable why today’s prisons are contemporary slave plantations. I couldn’t put it down and I tried." —Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple A haunting and powerfully moving book that gives voice to the poorest among us and lays bare the cruelty of a penal system that too often defines their lives. In this unforgettable work, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges, who brought us War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning and America, The Farewell Tour, provides an intimate and moving look at the lives of the students he teaches in a maximum-security prison. He and twenty-eight students (who together are serving a combined sentence of 515 years) read and discussed plays by Amiri Baraka, John Herbert, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Miguel Piñero and August Wilson, among others. Together they set out to write an original play drawing on their experiences of poverty, institutionalized racism, police brutality and mass incarceration. (Their play, Caged, would eventually perform to sold-out audiences and be published as a book in 2020.) In The Class, the men—some of whom know they will die in prison—give voice to the struggles of grief, shame, injustice, guilt and generational trauma they and their families have endured, as well as to their hopes and dreams. Hedges chronicles with heart-breaking intimacy the emotional struggle for artistic expression that leads to self-awareness, transformation and redemption. The Class is at once a story of creative triumph and a scorching critique of the racialized poverty that plagues North America and what it does to the most vulnerable.

Nach zwei Weltkriegen, in denen sich Deutschland jedes Mal angeblich gegen Russland "verteidigte", darf von deutschem Boden nur noch Frieden ausgehen. Dies hatten sich viele angesichts der Trümmerlandschaften nach 1945 geschworen. Nun wird erneut für einen großen, verheerenden Krieg mobil gemacht. In den Waffenfabriken sowie in den Medien der "Heimatfront", die ihre vornehmste Aufgabe darin zu sehen scheinen, die Köpfe der kriegsskeptischen Bürger mit Propagandaphrasen sturmreif zu schreiben. Das betrifft unser ureigenstes Metier: den engagierten Journalismus. Der Rubikon hat für dieses Buch daher die hellsten Köpfe der Friedensbewegung versammelt, um ein machtvolles Gegengewicht zu schaffen. Denn es ist höchste Zeit, aufzustehen. Zeit, die eigene Stimme zu erheben. Zeit, Position zu beziehen. Für jeden und jede von uns. Mit Beiträgen von: Daniele Ganser, Chris Hedges, Karin Leukefeld, Volker Bräutigam, Friedhelm Klinkhammer, Ulrich Teusch, Hannes Hofbauer, Ivan Rodionov, Jens Wernicke, Hermann Ploppa, Roland Rottenfußer, Nicolas Riedl, Stefan Korinth, Florian Kirner, Kilez More, Bernhard Trautvetter, Werner Ruf, Armin Wertz, Jens Lehrich, Peter Frey, Jens Bernert, Ullrich Mies, Andrea Drescher, Ulrich Heyden, Andreas von Westphalen, Nina Forberger, Madita Hampe und Christiane Borowy. Stimmen zum Buch: "Die aktuell größten Bedrohungen für das Überleben der Menschheit stellen die beständig wachsende Gefahr eines großen Krieges sowie die immer gravierendere Zerstörung unserer Lebensgrundlagen dar. Zeit, dass entschlossen gegen die Propaganda in beiden Bereichen vorgegangen und so immens wichtige Aufklärung geleistet wird." Prof. Rainer Mausfeld, Kognitionsforscher "Ich habe die ganz große Sorge, dass wir von den drei westlichen Nachrichtenagenturen in einen Krieg gegen Russland gehetzt werden — und fast alle unsere Leitmedien und Politiker übernehmen das unhinterfragt." Prof. Christian Kreiß, Professor für Finanzierung und Wirtschaftspolitik

Chris Hedges’s profound and unsettling examination of America in crisis is “an exceedingly…provocative book, certain to arouse controversy, but offering a point of view that needs to be heard” (Booklist), about how bitter hopelessness and malaise have resulted in a culture of sadism and hate. America, says Pulitzer Prizeu00ad–winning reporter Chris Hedges, is convulsed by an array of pathologies that have arisen out of profound hopelessness, a bitter despair, and a civil society that has ceased to function. The opioid crisis; the retreat into gambling to cope with economic distress; the pornification of culture; the rise of magical thinking; the celebration of sadism, hate, and plagues of suicides are the physical manifestations of a society that is being ravaged by corporate pillage and a failed democracy. As our society unravels, we also face global upheaval caused by catastrophic climate change. All these ills presage a frightening reconfiguration of the nation and the planet. Donald Trump rode this disenchantment to power. In his “forceful and direct” (Publishers Weekly) America: The Farewell Tour, Hedges argues that neither political party, now captured by corporate power, addresses the systemic problem. Until our corporate coup d’état is reversed these diseases will grow and ravage the country. “With sharply observed detail, Hedges writes a requiem for the American dream” (Kirkus Reviews) and seeks to jolt us out of our complacency while there is still time.

Westliche Staatsführungen und Finanzorganisationen sind mit einem zunehmenden Glaubwürdigkeitsverlust konfrontiert. Die Friedenshoffnung nach dem Zerfall der Sowjetunion und der Auflösung des Warschauer Paktes ist längst im Kampfgeschrei der NATO zerstoben. Der Wirtschaftskrise des Jahres 2008 folgte keine vernünftige Umkehr, vielmehr ein noch offensiveres Expansionsstreben. Das Diktum von der "westlichen Wertegemeinschaft" ist zum Synonym für eine aggressive Weltherrschaft geworden. Wer sich dieser nicht unterordnet, wird mit Drohungen und Krieg überzogen. "Der Tiefe Staat schlägt zu" knüpft an das Buch "Fassadendemokratie und Tiefer Staat" aus dem Jahr 2017 an. Der Band zeigt auf, wie sich die autoritären Strukturen hinter den parlamentarischen Kulissen verfestigen und sich die tatsächliche Macht im Tiefen Staat manifestiert. Herrschaftseliten und Systemmedien revitalisieren das alte Feindbild Russland und bereiten die Menschen auf bevorstehende Kriege vor. Parallel dazu rüstet die westliche Militärallianz beispiellos auf. Die Strategie der Spannung im Inneren sorgt für eine lähmende Angststarre. In einzelnen Kapiteln verfolgen die AutorInnen die seit dem NATO-Krieg gegen Jugoslawien 1999 immer breiter werdende Blutspur, mit der der "freie Westen" die Welt überzieht. Sie beschäftigen sich mit Krieg als integralem Bestandteil von Kapitalismus, dem von Washington und Brüssel/Berlin betriebenen planmäßigen Aufbau eines neuen Ost-West-Konfliktes, staatsterroristischen Aktivitäten, der NATO-Ost-Eroberung, dem Kriegsgeschehen im Nahen Osten, einer den Konzernen hörigen Europäischen Union und der gefährlichen Konfrontation mit der aufstrebenden Wirtschaftsmacht China.

Les institutions sociales et politiques s’écroulent aux États-Unis comme ailleurs, et les élites, tant de gauche que de droite, ne suscitent plus au sein des peuples qu’un ressentiment dont l’intensité va grandissant. Cette colère se déchaîne et, de partout, surgissent des charlatans prêts à la canaliser pour protéger les élites au pouvoir. Les signes ne trompent pas : l’âge des démagogues est arrivé. Dans cette série d’entretiens, Chris Hedges explique l’ascension politique d’un personnage aussi trouble que Donald Trump, dénonçant au passage les démocrates, qu’il juge responsables de la déréliction politique qui a fait perdre la tête à l’Amérique. Une analyse lucide du néolibéralisme totalitaire et de la montée des extrémismes partout dans le monde, et qui incite, en fin de compte, à la rébellion.

Chris Hedges on the most taboo topics in America, with David Talbot. The War on Terror is a profitable crusade against convenient enemies. “Muslim rage” is an understandable response to US state terror. Rising oligarchy in America has made democracy a sham and turned the electoral process into an increasingly absurd circus. Police violence against minorities is part of a systematic effort to crush social discontent. Proliferating violence against women’s health clinics is part of the war on women’s bodies. Freedom of speech is an illusion, with government agencies and corporate media dictating acceptable boundaries of public discourse. America’s only hope is a revolution to create genuine structures of popular power. This kind of insight into America’s deeply troubled current state cannot be found on television, in the pages of leading newspapers, or on Google News. Many of our most important thinkers are relegated to the shadows because their ideas are deemed too radical—or true—for public consumption. Among these intellectual bomb throwers is Chris Hedges, who, after decades on the front lines, continues to confront power in America in the most incisive, challenging ways. Hedges’s unfettered conversation with Hot Books editorial director David Talbot— founder of Salon and author of New York Times bestseller, The Devil’s Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA and the Rise of America’s Secret Government—will be the first in a series for Hot Books called “Unspeakable,” featuring some of the most important – and censored – voices in the world today.

Ecrit à la suite des attentats terroristes de septembre 2001, publié alors que se préparait l''invasion de l''Irak de 2003, cet essai cherchait à dissuader les Américains de faire une analyse manichéenne des conflits à l''oeuvre dans cette région et de vouloir les résoudre par la force. Le moins qu''on puisse dire, c''est que Hedges ne fut pas écouté : les retombées militaires et politiques des décisions prises à l''époque par les Etats-Unis dépassent ses prédictions les plus noires. La réflexion de Hedges sur la guerre est plus que jamais pertinente aujourd''hui, peut-être surtout pour la France, qui, face aux mêmes "démons" que les Etats-Unis au début du siècle, se montre souvent tentée par la même rhétorique simpliste et les mêmes solutions désastreuses.

Durante décadas, la clase liberal ha sido un mecanismo de defensa contra los peores excesos del poder. Posibilitaba formas limitadas de disidencia y cambio, y servía como baluarte contra los movimientos más radicales, ofreciendo una válvula de escape para la frustración y el descontento popular, y desacreditando a quienes planteaban un cambio estructural profundo. Sin embargo, una vez perdido su papel social y político, la clase liberal y sus valores se han convertido en objeto de burla y odio. La bancarrota del liberalismo ha abierto la puerta a los protofascistas, y los pilares de la clase liberal —prensa, universidades, movimiento obrero, Partido Demócrata e instituciones religiosas— se han derrumbado. Las clases más pobres, e incluso la clase media, ya no disponen de un contrapeso efectivo, por lo que la clase liberal se ha vuelto irrelevante para la sociedad en general y también para la élite del poder empresarial al que una vez sirvió. En esta contundente crítica Chris Hedges acusa abiertamente a las instituciones liberales de haber distorsionado sus creencias básicas con el fin de apoyar un capitalismo sin restricciones, un absurdo estado de seguridad nacional y unas desigualdades de ingresos y redistribución de la riqueza sin parangón en la historia reciente. Para Hedges, la "muerte" de la clase liberal ha creado un profundo vacío en la vida política, que están tratando de llenar los especuladores, los promotores de la guerra y las demagógicas milicias del Tea Party.

Revolutions come in waves and cycles. We are again riding the crest of a revolutionary epic, much like 1848 or 1917, from the Arab Spring to movements against austerity in Greece to the Occupy movement. In Wages of Rebellion, Chris Hedges—who has chronicled the malaise and sickness of a society in terminal moral decline in his books Empire of Illusion and Death of the Liberal Class—investigates what social and psychological factors cause revolution, rebellion, and resistance. Drawing on an ambitious overview of prominent philosophers, historians, and literary figures he shows not only the harbingers of a coming crisis but also the nascent seeds of rebellion. Hedges'' message is clear: popular uprisings in the United States and around the world are inevitable in the face of environmental destruction and wealth polarization. Focusing on the stories of rebels from around the world and throughout history, Hedges investigates what it takes to be a rebel in modern times. Utilizing the work of Reinhold Niebuhr, Hedges describes the motivation that guides the actions of rebels as “sublime madness” — the state of passion that causes the rebel to engage in an unavailing fight against overwhelmingly powerful and oppressive forces. For Hedges, resistance is carried out not for its success, but as a moral imperative that affirms life. Those who rise up against the odds will be those endowed with this “sublime madness.” From South African activists who dedicated their lives to ending apartheid, to contemporary anti-fracking protests in Alberta, Canada, to whistleblowers in pursuit of transparency, Wages of Rebellion shows the cost of a life committed to speaking the truth and demanding justice. Hedges has penned an indispensable guide to rebellion.

General George S. Patton famously said, "Compared to war all other forms of human endeavor shrink to insignificance. God, I do love it so!" Though Patton was a notoriously single-minded general, it is nonetheless a sad fact that war gives meaning to many lives, a fact with which we have become familiar now that America is once again engaged in a military conflict. War is an enticing elixir. It gives us purpose, resolve, a cause. It allows us to be noble. Chris Hedges of The New York Times has seen war up close -- in the Balkans, the Middle East, and Central America -- and he has been troubled by what he has seen: friends, enemies, colleagues, and strangers intoxicated and even addicted to war''s heady brew. In War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, he tackles the ugly truths about humanity''s love affair with war, offering a sophisticated, nuanced, intelligent meditation on the subject that is also gritty, powerful, and unforgettable.

« Les progressistes ont fait trop de concessions à l’élite du pouvoir. Ils ont succombé à l’opportunisme puis à la peur en entraînant avec eux leurs institutions. Ils ont renoncé à leur fonction morale. Ils n’ont pas dénoncé les abus des milieux d’affaires quand ils en avaient l’occasion, et ont banni de leurs rangs ceux qui osaient le faire. [...] L’une après l’autre, ces institutions ont succombé à l’appât du gain, aux harangues patriotiques, à l’idéologie de la guerre permanente, à la peur des ennemis de l’intérieur comme de l’extérieur et à la méfiance à l’égard des militants de gauche, à qui l’élite progressiste devait jadis son honnêteté. » De plus en plus puissant, l’État-entreprise n’a même plus à répondre à ses détracteurs progressistes. Les médias, les syndicats, les universités, les artistes et le Parti démocrate se sont tous inclinés devant la grande entreprise et, bardés de leur prétendue neutralité, défendent désormais les intérêts de celle-ci dans une consternante pantomime de démocratie. L’élite progressiste américaine, détachée du monde, dépourvue de toute crédibilité, a déserté la tribune politique, cédant la place au populisme d’extrême droite. À la fois récit du naufrage volontaire du contre-pouvoir, depuis la Première Guerre mondiale jusqu’à l’invasion de l’Irak, et constat d’un alarmant vide idéologique, ce livre salue aussi les révoltés, libres parias, qui persistent à épuiser le champ du possible.

« La culture de l’illusion est une forme de pensée magique grâce à laquelle des prêts hypothécaires sans valeur se transforment en richesse, la destruction de notre assise manufacturière se transforme en possibilité de croissance, l’aliénation et l’anxiété se transforment en conformisme pétulant, et un État qui mène des guerres illégales et administre des colonies pénitentiaires où l’on pratique ouvertement la torture à l’étranger devient la plus grande démocratie du monde. » Avec son bonheur de façade et ses émotions fabriquées, la culture de l’illusion étend son emprise sur les États-Unis. D’un salon de l’industrie de la pornographie à Las Vegas aux plateaux de la télé-réalité, en passant par les campus universitaires et les séminaires de développement personnel, Chris Hedges enquête sur les mécanismes qui empêchent de distinguer le réel des faux-semblants et détournent la population des enjeux politiques réels. Le portrait qui s’en dégage est terrifiant : régie par les intérêts de la grande entreprise, la culture américaine se meurt aux mains d’un empire qui cherche à tirer un maximum de profit de l’appauvrissement moral, intellectuel et économique de ses sujets.

De la réserve indienne de Pine Ridge dans le Dakota aux militants d''Occupy Wall Street, Joe Sacco et Chris Hedges ont parcouru les zones sinistrées des USA. Ils dressent un constat terrible des conséquences d''un capitalisme décomplexé sur les laissés-pour-compte du système, dans un pays dont le taux de pauvreté est le plus élevé des pays industrialisés.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire of Illusion and an American Book Award-winning cartoonist present a scathing graphic report on the crises facing America''s poor as reflected in the city of Camden, New Jersey, tracing its descent from an industrial giant to a region torn by unemployment, open-air drug markets and budget cuts.

Drawing on two decades of experience as a war correspondent and based on his numerous columns for Truthdig, Chris Hedges presents The World As It Is, a panorama of the American empire at home and abroad, from the coarsening effect of America''s War on Terror to the front lines in the Middle East and South Asia and the continuing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Underlying his reportage is a constant struggle with the nature of war and its impact on human civilization. "War is always about betrayal," Hedges notes. "It is about betrayal of the young by the old, of cynics by idealists, and of soldiers and Marines by politicians. Society''s institutions, including our religious institutions, which mold us into compliant citizens, are unmasked."

For decades the liberal class was a defense against the worst excesses of power. But the pillars of the liberal class -- the press, universities, the labor movement, the Democratic Party, and liberal religious institutions -- have collapsed. In its absence, the poor, the working class, and even the middle class no longer have a champion. In this searing polemic Chris Hedges indicts liberal institutions, including his former employer, the New York Times, who have distorted their basic beliefs in order to support unfettered capitalism, the national security state, globalization, and staggering income inequalities. Hedges argues that the death of the liberal class created a profound vacuum at the heart of American political life. And now speculators, war profiteers, and demagogues -- from militias to the Tea Party -- are filling the void.

A prescient book that forecast the culture that gave rise to Trump -- a society beholden to empty spectacle and obsession with image at the expense of reality, reason, and truth. An instant bestseller, Empire of Illusion is a striking and unsettling exploration of illusion and fantasy in contemporary American culture. Traveling to the ringside of professional wrestling bouts at Madison Square Garden, to Las Vegas to write about the pornographic film industry, and to academic conferences held by positive psychologists who claim to be able to engineer happiness, Hedges chronicles our flight from an ever-worsening reality. The cultural embrace of illusion and celebrity culture have accompanied a growing system of casino capitalism, which creates vast wealth for elites. Corporations have ruthlessly dismantled and destroyed our manufacturing base and impoverished our working class. Hedges exposes the mechanisms that undermine our democracy and divert us from the economic, environmental, political, and moral collapse around us. A culture that cannot distinguish between reality and illusion dies, Hedges argues, and we are dying now.

Critiques the radical mindset that rages against religion and faith, and identifies the pillars of the new atheist belief system, revealing that the stringent rules and rigid traditions in place are as strict as those of any religious practice. The new atheists, led by Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris, do not make moral arguments about religion. Rather, they have created a new form of fundamentalism that attempts to permeate society with ideas about our own moral superiority and the omnipotence of human reason. Journalist Hedges makes a case against both religious and secular fundamentalism.--From amazon.com.

Collateral Damage brings together testimony from the largest number of on the record, named, combat veterans who reveal the disturbing, daily reality of war and occupation in Iraq. Through their eyes, we learn how the mechanics of war lead to the abuse and frequent killing of innocents. They describe convoys of vehicles roaring down roads, smashing into cars, and hitting Iraqi civilians. They detail raids that leave families shot dead in the mayhem. And they describe a battlefield in which troops, untrained to distinguish between combatants and civilians, are authorized to shoot whenever they feel threatened.

No Marketing Blurb

Acclaimed New York Times journalist and author Chris Hedges offers a critical -- and fascinating -- lesson in the dangerous realities of our age: a stark look at the effects of war on combatants. Utterly lacking in rhetoric or dogma, this manual relies instead on bare fact, frank description, and a spare question-and-answer format. Hedges allows U.S. military documentation of the brutalizing physical and psychological consequences of combat to speak for itself. Hedges poses dozens of questions that young soldiers might ask about combat, and then answers them by quoting from medical and psychological studies. • What are my chances of being wounded or killed if we go to war? • What does it feel like to get shot? • What do artillery shells do to you? • What is the most painful way to get wounded? • Will I be afraid? • What could happen to me in a nuclear attack? • What does it feel like to kill someone? • Can I withstand torture? • What are the long-term consequences of combat stress? • What will happen to my body after I die? This profound and devastating portrayal of the horrors to which we subject our armed forces stands as a ringing indictment of the glorification of war and the concealment of its barbarity.

Twenty-five years ago, when Pat Robertson and other radio and televangelists first spoke of the United States becoming a Christian nation that would build a global Christian empire, it was hard to take such hyperbolic rhetoric seriously. Today, such language no longer sounds like hyperbole but poses, instead, a very real threat to our freedom and our way of life. In American Fascists, Chris Hedges, veteran journalist and author of the National Book Award finalist War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, challenges the Christian Right''s religious legitimacy and argues that at its core it is a mass movement fueled by unbridled nationalism and a hatred for the open society. Hedges, who grew up in rural parishes in upstate New York where his father was a Presbyterian pastor, attacks the movement as someone steeped in the Bible and Christian tradition. He points to the hundreds of senators and members of Congress who have earned between 80 and 100 percent approval ratings from the three most influential Christian Right advocacy groups as one of many signs that the movement is burrowing deep inside the American government to subvert it. The movement''s call to dismantle the wall between church and state and the intolerance it preaches against all who do not conform to its warped vision of a Christian America are pumped into tens of millions of American homes through Christian television and radio stations, as well as reinforced through the curriculum in Christian schools. The movement''s yearning for apocalyptic violence and its assault on dispassionate, intellectual inquiry are laying the foundation for a new, frightening America. American Fascists, which includes interviews and coverage of events such as pro-life rallies and weeklong classes on conversion techniques, examines the movement''s origins, its driving motivations and its dark ideological underpinnings. Hedges argues that the movement currently resembles the young fascist movements in Italy and Germany in the 1920s and ''30s, movements that often masked the full extent of their drive for totalitarianism and were willing to make concessions until they achieved unrivaled power. The Christian Right, like these early fascist movements, does not openly call for dictatorship, nor does it use physical violence to suppress opposition. In short, the movement is not yet revolutionary. But the ideological architecture of a Christian fascism is being cemented in place. The movement has roused its followers to a fever pitch of despair and fury. All it will take, Hedges writes, is one more national crisis on the order of September 11 for the Christian Right to make a concerted drive to destroy American democracy. The movement awaits a crisis. At that moment they will reveal themselves for what they truly are -- the American heirs to fascism. Hedges issues a potent, impassioned warning. We face an imminent threat. His book reminds us of the dangers liberal, democratic societies face when they tolerate the intolerant.