Empire of Illusion, Chris Hedges
Empire of Illusion, Chris Hedges
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Empire of Illusion
The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle

Author: Chris Hedges

Narrator: Jonathan Yen

Unabridged: 9 hr 25 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 04/10/2018

Synopsis

We now live in two Americas. One—now the minority—functions in a print-based, literate world that can cope with complexity and can separate illusion from truth. The other—the majority—is retreating from a reality-based world into one of false certainty and magic. To this majority—which crosses social class lines, though the poor are overwhelmingly affected—presidential debate and political rhetoric is pitched at a sixth-grade reading level. In this "other America," serious film and theater, as well as newspapers and books, are being pushed to the margins of society.

In the tradition of Christopher Lasch's The Culture of Narcissism and Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death, Pulitzer Prize winner Chris Hedges navigates this culture—attending WWF contests, the Adult Video News Awards in Las Vegas, and Ivy League graduation ceremonies—to expose an age of terrifying decline and heightened self-delusion.

About Chris Hedges

Chris Hedges, a staff member of the New York Times since 1990, has been a foreign correspondent for fifteen years. An adjunct professor of journalism at New York University, he is the author of Losing Moses on the Freeway and What Every Person Should Know About War. Chris was a member of the team that won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for the New York Times's coverage of global terrorism. A senior fellow at the Nation Institute, he lives in New Jersey.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Sam on April 30, 2017

America is DOOMED! So argues Pulitzer Prize-winning author Chris Hedges convincingly in Empire of Illusion which critically examines 21st century American culture (or lack thereof!) and how things got this point. His central thesis is that any civilisation that can’t tell the difference between fant......more

Goodreads review by Will on September 07, 2009

It will take me a while to put up a real review here, but overall, I agree with most of what Hedges has to say about the darkness all around us. I was a bit alarmed at his tone in the book, which made him sound like one of those guys parading up and down the street crying "the end is near" or "Soyle......more

Goodreads review by David on September 17, 2013

One word sum up Hedge's Empire of Illusion: autology. If you've ever wondered what the word is that describes something which describes itself (think: "multisyllabic" or "trochee" or "portmanteau" or "sesquipedalian, etc.), it is autological. In a book which so fervently rails against "spectacle" it......more

Goodreads review by Scott on November 22, 2015

I love a good rant. I especially love a good, well written rant. But best of all is a good, well-written rant that hits the mark, which is an apt description this book. Hedges explores several areas of modern society and it's failings, from pornography, the education system, the corruption and dilut......more

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