American Fascists

The Christian Right and the War on America

By: Chris Hedges, Eunice Wong

Narrated by: Chris Hedges, Eunice Wong

Twenty-five years ago, when Pat Robertson and other televangelists first spoke of the United States being a Christian nation that would build a global Christian empire, it was hard to take such hyperbolic rhetoric seriously. Today, such language no longer sounds like hyperbole but poses, instead, a very real threat to our freedoms and our way of life. In American Fascists, the Christian Right's religious legitimacy is challenged, and Hedges argues that, at its core, it is a mass movement fueled by unbridled nationalism and a hatred for the open society.

Hedges, who grew up in rural parishes in upstate New York, where his father was a Presbyterian pastor, attacks the movement as someone steeped in the Bible and Christian tradition. He points to the hundreds of senators and members of Congress who have earned between 80 and 100 percent approval ratings from the three most influential Christian Right advocacy groups as one of many signs that the movement is burrowing deep inside the American government in order to subvert it.

The movement's call to dismantle the wall between church and state, and the intolerance it preaches against all who do not conform to its warped vision of a Christian America, are pumped into tens of millions of American homes through Christian television and radio stations, and are reinforced through the curriculum of Christian schools. The movement's yearning for apocalyptic violence and its assault on dispassionate, intellectual inquiry are laying the foundation for a new, frightening America.

©2007 Chris Hedges and Eunice Wong (P)2007 Tantor Media Inc.

Critic reviews

"This urgent book forcefully illuminates what many across the political spectrum will recognize as a serious and growing threat to the very concept and practice of an open society." ( Publishers Weekly)

Scariest book i ever read.

This book is frightening and I will tell you why. I'm listening to this 2006 book in 2024, and it's was literally a prophecy of everything that's occurring today. It was the warning we ignored, and now we're here. Fantastic and I can't find anymore words to say. If I'd read this 18yrs ago, I would've laughed and said this dude might be delusional. Nah, more like prophetic

Mind blowing

The information was as I anticipated, but the depth and breadth of the insanity that people buy into made me want to vomit. That anyone, let alone thousands of people, believe the mental gymnastics needed to think that the Christian Bible has anything whatsoever to say about science. People and dinosaurs at the same time? Just insane. This is what happens when crazy people are allowed to make things up, and no one stops them. Just like Hitler's fake Christianity. How can this happen here? Thank you Chris Hedges for researching these horrific developments in the U.S.

Epic and frightful

Yes, yes, this truth needs to be brought out, illuminated, and acted upon. The task is epic and frightful, but giving up is not an option. End the ignorance of and tolerance for this most unChristian of social systems...share this book!

Good not great, but worth a read

Decent book. A bit heavy on quotations and perhaps over stated, but fundamentally necessary in understanding how the radical evangelical right intersects with fascism.

Great Book. Ok Narration.

Enjoyed the book generally, but some of the narration was jarring, rising sharply in volume and testing the quality of the recording.