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Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle
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Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle Paperback - 2010

by Chris Hedges

In the tradition of Christopher Lasch's "The Culture of Narcissism," Pulitzer Prize-winner Hedges charts the dramatic and disturbing rise of a post-literate America that craves fantasy, ecstasy, and illusion.


From the publisher

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.

Details

  • Title Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle
  • Author Chris Hedges
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition First Trade Pape
  • Pages 240
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Bold Type Books, New York
  • Date 2010-10-05
  • Features Bibliography, Index
  • ISBN 9781568586137 / 1568586132
  • Weight 0.45 lbs (0.20 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.13 x 6.39 x 0.69 in (20.65 x 16.23 x 1.75 cm)
  • Ages 18 to UP years
  • Grade levels 13 - UP
  • Library of Congress subjects Popular culture - United States, Mass media - United States
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 2009013585
  • Dewey Decimal Code 302.23

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 writes a weekly column for the online magazine Truthdig. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey.
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Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle
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Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle

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

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