The Great Derangement: A Terrifying True Story of War, Politics, and Religion at the Twilight of the American Empire [Hardcover]

Matt Taibbi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 6, 2008

A REVELATORY AND DARKLY COMIC ADVENTURE THROUGH A NATION ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN—FROM THE HALLS OF CONGRESS TO THE BASES OF BAGHDAD TO THE APOCALYPTIC CHURCHES OF THE HEARTLAND


Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi set out to describe the nature of George Bush’s America in the post-9/11 era and ended up vomiting demons in an evangelical church in Texas, riding the streets of Baghdad in an American convoy to nowhere, searching for phantom fighter jets in Congress, and falling into the rabbit hole of the 9/11 Truth Movement.
Matt discovered in his travels across the country that the resilient blue state/red state narrative of American politics had become irrelevant. A large and growing chunk of the American population was so turned off—or radicalized—by electoral chicanery, a spineless news media, and the increasingly blatant lies from our leaders (“they hate us for our freedom”) that they abandoned the political mainstream altogether. They joined what he calls The Great Derangement.
Taibbi tells the story of this new American madness by inserting himself into four defining American subcultures: The Military, where he finds himself mired in the grotesque black comedy of the American occupation of Iraq; The System, where he follows the money-slicked path of legislation in Congress; The Resistance, where he doubles as chief public antagonist and undercover member of the passionately bonkers 9/11 Truth Movement; and The Church, where he infiltrates a politically influential apocalyptic mega-ministry in Texas and enters the lives of its desperate congregants. Together these four interwoven adventures paint a portrait of a nation dangerously out of touch with reality and desperately searching for answers in all the wrong places.
Funny, smart, and a little bit heartbreaking, The Great Derangement is an audaciously reported, sobering, and illuminating portrait of America at the end of the Bush era.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With his trademark mordant wit, journalist Taibbi explores the black comedy of the American polis, where a citizenry shunted out of the political process seeks solace in conspiratorial weirdness and Internet-fueled mysticism. Trained from birth to be excellent consumers, Americans have become experts in mixing and matching news items to fit [their] own self-created identities, according to the author, who embeds himself in these pockets of people as he travels to the Congress press gallery, Iraq, meetings of the 9/11 Truth Movement, and goes undercover at a Christian Retreat. He pillories born-again Christians and the 9/11 conspiracy theorists, concluding that despite their differences: Both groups were and are defined primarily by an unshakeable belief in the inhumanity of their enemies on the other side; the Christians seldom distinguished between Islamic terrorism and, say, Al Gore–style environmentalism, while the Truthers easily believed that reporters for the Washington Post, the president and the frontline operators of NORAD were equally capable of murdering masses of ordinary New York financial sector employees. Thoughtful Democrats, Republicans and independents will find common ground in this book that punctures pretense, hypocrisy and know-nothingness. (May 6)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

PRAISE FOR
THE GREAT DERANGEMENT

"Matt Taibbi is the best American journalism has to offer. As The Great Derangement shows, he has absolutely no fear in confronting the corruption that plagues our government and exploring rising desperation that plagues America. And somehow, he pulls it off while making us simultaneously weep in sorrow and laugh our asses off." –David Sirota, author of Hostile Takeover


“The Great Derangement is a scabrous, hilarious vivisection of our disintegrating nation. An unstinting reporter and sensational writer, Taibbi shines a light on the corruption, absurdities and idiot pieties of modern American politics. Beneath his cynical fury, though, are flashes of surprising compassion for the adrift, credulous souls who are taken in by it all.  I loved this book."
–Michelle Goldberg, New York Times bestselling author of Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism

“Where other mainstream news sources fail, Matt Taibbi madly embraces his role as an honest political observer/writer/citizen in a democracy. I would also like to take this opportunity to ask for Matt’s hand in marriage”.
–Janeane Garofalo

“With his trademark mordant wit, Taibbi explores the ‘black comedy’ of the American polis. . .thoughtful Democrats, Republicans, and independents will find common ground in this book that punctures pretense, hypocrisy, and know-nothingness.” —Publisher’s Weekly

“Taibbi is a powerful writer, and his righteous fury with the sickening mechanism of congressional corruption seethes on every page.” –Kirkus Reviews

“It's a fascinating and hilarious study, fueled by Taibbi's own brand of paranoia, reflecting a cruel light on an America gone wild.”–Los Angeles Times

 “A vicious, funny, heartbreaking tour of the American scene.” –The New York Observer

“Acidly funny… For readers who have themselves grown desperate, Taibbi’s renegade book is a bracing kind of salvation–the kind that will amuse and enrage at the same time.”  –Time Out

“Vibrant, rich and irreverent.  It's quotable, pointed, painful, funny and true. Thank God we have Matt Taibbi around.”  –Daily Kos

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Spiegel & Grau; 1St Edition edition (May 6, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385520344
• ISBN-13: 978-0385520348
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (77 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #428,395 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

191 of 206 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good insights, but ..., May 15, 2008

By 

B. Centre (USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Great Derangement: A Terrifying True Story of War, Politics, and Religion at the Twilight of the American Empire (Hardcover)

I bought this book after reading the exerpt in Rolling Stone about the author's undercover immersion into the Hagee fundamentalist cult. I laughed myself sick and ordered it immediately.

Unfortunately, like most movie trailers, and exerpts published in periodicals, that chapter was the highlight of the book. I kept waiting for more of that sustained humor and bitting wit, but no other chapter came close. Thus, I was somewhat disappointed.

That said, Taibbi gives a good inside understanding of the inner workings of congress, the corruption that has become inherent in our system. His exposee on the 911 conspiracy theorist crazies, and cynical perspective of the Christian Zionist nut jobs and their pathetic flock is revealing and entertaining. Finally, he proffers how these desperate people and divergent groups of the far left and far right are actually a manifestation of American's disgust with, and powerlessness against, the deception and derangement that has become government.

I don't regret buying it, but if I had it to do all over again, I'd wait a few months and get it used at a deep discount.

66 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the view from Texas, August 23, 2009

By 

R. Conner "interpreter" - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Great Derangement: A Terrifying True Story of War, Politics, and Religion (Paperback)

I've lived in every corner of the continental United States and Hawaii, but about half of my 62 years have been spent in various cities large and small in Texas. Few writers have managed to capture the creepy folksiness, the numbing intellectual disconnect, and the vicious religiosity of Texas as well as Matt Taibbi. His acutely observed description of Hagee's San Antonio mega-cult is spot on. The author gleefully picks the chunks out of the mind vomit of homophobia, militarism and apocalyptic whackology such outfits specialize in, and clearly identifies how Hagee uses support for Israel (to be carefully distinguished from sympathy for Jewish people) to make powerful political connections. This is a marvelous LOL examination of the intersection of religious and political sleeze in an America that's DOA.

135 of 154 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truth ... stranger than reality, May 6, 2008

By 

Chris Martin "rocker" (Indiana) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Great Derangement: A Terrifying True Story of War, Politics, and Religion at the Twilight of the American Empire (Hardcover)

Got this book Monday, May 5th. Finished it once ... going back again. Matt reveals the absurdity that has this country by the throat. As a former church pastor, the narrative on Matt's adventure with John Hagee's nut bunch was point-on. This book is laugh-out-loud funny but what it reveals is very sad. This book should be required reading in every freshman high school and college civics/polysci course. It's interesting and ironic that Matt Taibbi, Don Imus, Bill Maher, and a very few others may save us from ourselves yet. Thanks guys ... from our kids ... and theirs.