America, The Farewell Tour

By: Chris Hedges

Narrated by: Fred Sanders

If you thought you knew Chris Hedges--be surprised. The globally renowned Pulitzer Prize-winner gives us an entirely new view of a nation in crisis in a stunning book that holds both liberals and conservatives to account--as rousingly pertinent for Canada as for the disoriented US. Beautifully written, it clarifies vividly and unforgettably the forces at play in our times.

In astonishing, tough, first-hand reportage, Chris Hedges draws on stories from inside communities across America and reveals how the hurricanes of change have allowed an array of pathologies to arise: the opioid crisis, the retreat into gambling, the corporate coup d'état of government, the pornification of culture, the rise of magical thinking, the emboldening of violence and hate, the plagues of suicides, and the global upheaval caused by catastrophic climate change. These are just some of the physical manifestations of a society unravelling. Such ills presage a frightening reconfiguration of our lives--particularly in the face of our neighbour's degeneration as a world power.

Donald Trump rode this disenchantment to power. Hedges--who was unsurprised by Trump's victory--shows how neither the left nor the right are addressing the systemic problems. Until the corporate coup d'état is reversed, these diseases will grow and ravage the country. A humane cry for a decent future, this remarkable book is our wake-up call to reality.

Critic reviews

“The title says it all. In powerfully reported chapters—including ‘Decay’ (deindustrialization), ‘Heroin’ (the opioid epidemic), ‘Sadism’ (the pornography-industrial complex), and ‘Hate’ (racism)—Hedges talks to the most oppressed and dispossessed citizens of an empire he thinks has not much more than a decade of life left.” —Maclean’s

“Hedges flatly asserts that the nation named the United States of America is in its death throes. . . . He is a respected mind. . . . Hedges is trying to rally the troops to salvation.” —Winnipeg Free Press

“In this no-holds-barred book, Hedges covers an America in crisis—from the opioid crisis to the current political situation, joblessness, breakdown of communities and more. A depressing, important read.” —New York Post

“This is a difficult book to read. Brace yourself. Then read it. The things of which [Hedges] speaks are things that we should know and understand.” —WYSO (Ohio)

“[O]ffers the reader an unsentimental and brilliant diagnosis of our ongoing national malaise, and it goes off in your face like a truth-bomb—you want to look away, but you can’t, and dare not. . . . An unflinching look at the ‘corporate coup d’etat’ that has all but gutted the civic and economic structures of the United States, pushing the country toward inevitable collapse. Not one to pull punches, [Hedges] combines ground-zero investigative reporting with high-octane analysis to detail the disaster that has befallen us and its effects in terms of very real human suffering—rampant drug addiction, prostitution and gambling, to chronic poverty, the loss of manufacturing jobs and the rise of hate groups. . . . It’s a tough book to read, but absolutely vital.” —Eugene Weekly

“Chris Hedges wants us to face realities. Our society is unraveling, institutionally and structurally, and is being replaced by the corporate state of merging big business and government. Commercialism overwhelms civic values, impoverishes its subjects, and reaches into childhoods, bypassing parental authority. Poverty, addiction, gambling, and hopelessness spread like epidemics. Only we the people can reverse the disintegration of democracy by plutocracy. . . . Chris Hedges depicts the horrifying truths on the ground from which resistance rises to jolt us into an active, realizable culture of reconstruction.” —Ralph Nader

“Chris Hedges is perhaps today’s most important public intellectual, and America, The Farewell Tour is perhaps his most important book. If we as a society are able to move past our current ‘sickness unto death,’ as Kierkegaard put it, it will be in great measure thanks to books like this one.” —Derrick Jensen, author of The Culture of Make Believe