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

"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.


Author: Chris Hedges
Publisher: Bold Type Books
Published: 10/05/2010
Pages: 240
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.45lbs
Size: 8.13h x 6.39w x 0.69d
ISBN13: 9781568586137
ISBN10: 1568586132
BISAC Categories:
- Social Science | Media Studies
- Social Science | Popular Culture
- Language Arts & Disciplines | Literacy

About the Author
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 lives in Princeton, New Jersey.