On Sale: Oct 5, 2010
Page Count: 240 pages
Publisher: Bold Type Books
ISBN-13: 9781568586137

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“A trenchantly argued critique of the near-destruction of the American Dream” (Philadelphia Inquirer) and the image-obsessed culture that has taken over society and culture

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.

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Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. He spent nearly two decades as a correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa, and the Balkans, with fifteen years at the New York Times. He is the author of numerous bestselling books, including Empire of Illusion; Death of the Liberal Class; War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning; and Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, which he co-wrote with Joe Sacco. He writes a weekly column for the online magazine Truthdig. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey.

“A trenchantly argued critique of the near-destruction of the American Dream by unfettered capitalism.”
Philadelphia Inquirer
“Each chapter of Empire of Illusion makes a strong case for how different illusions...taken together are destroying the American mind, culture and the nation itself.”
National Post
“[Hedges’s] cultural diagnoses have become more prescient and more ubiquitous with time.”
San Antonio Express-News
“Remarkable, bracing and highly moral, Empire of Illusion is Hedges’ lament for his nation.”
Maclean’s
“Impassioned, mournful . . . A welcome contribution to the field of cultural studies.”
Hemispheric Institute
“Hedges is a fan of big ideas, and in Empire of Illusion, he draws upon the culture of professional wrestling and pornography, the elite university, positive psychology and the financial crisis to fashion a social theory of everything.”
Winnipeg Free Press
“Thoroughly documented and written in a measured but take-no-prisoners tone. . . . It’s bound to stir up its share of interest-generating controversy.”
Booklist

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Chris Hedges

About the Author

Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist. He was a foreign correspondent for fifteen years for The New York Times, where he was their Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief. He is a New York Times bestselling author of sixteen books, including Empire of Illusion, War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, and American Fascists. He holds a Master of Divinity from Harvard University and writes at chrishedges.substack.com. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey.

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Chris Hedges

About the Author