Buy used:

$13.90

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

FREE delivery Wednesday, February 16 if you spend $25 on items shipped by Amazon. Order within 7 hrs 39 mins

Used: Good | Details

Sold by Haystack Market

Fulfilled by Amazon

Share <Embed>

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See all 4 images

Follow the Author

Chris Hedges

Books similar toDays of Destruction, Days of Revolt

Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt Hardcover – June 12, 2012

by Chris Hedges (Author), Joe Sacco (Illustrator)

456 ratings

Editors' pick Best History

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$12.99

—

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$13.90

$15.70

$3.57

Paperback

"Please retry"

$15.68

$14.56

$3.99

Two years ago, Pulitzer Prize winner Chris Hedges and award-winning cartoonist and journalist Joe Sacco set out to take a look at the sacrifice zones, those areas in America that have been offered up for exploitation in the name of profit, progress, and technological advancement. They wanted to show in words and drawings what life looks like in places where the marketplace rules without constraints, where human beings and the natural world are used and then discarded to maximize profit. Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt is the searing account of their travels.
The book starts in the western plains, where Native Americans were sacrificed in the giddy race for land and empire. It moves to the old manufacturing centers and coal fields that fueled the industrial revolution, but now lie depleted and in decay. It follows the steady downward spiral of American labor into the nation's produce fields and ends in Zuccotti Park where a new generation revolts against a corporate state that has handed to the young an economic, political, cultural and environmental catastrophe.

Print length

320 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Nation Books
Publication date

June 12, 2012
Grade level

11 and up
Reading age

18 years and up
Dimensions

7.25 x 1 x 10.25 inches
ISBN-10

1568586434
ISBN-13

978-1568586434
See all details

Colson Whitehead
18,158
Paperback
181 offers from $2.22
Chris Hedges
772
Paperback
82 offers from $1.44
Chris Hedges
345
Paperback
62 offers from $3.98
Chris Hedges
613
Paperback
88 offers from $3.22
Leslie Stevenson
41
Paperback
17 offers from $17.79
Chris Hedges
297
Paperback
52 offers from $0.38

Chris Hedges
838
Hardcover
67 offers from $6.49
Colson Whitehead
18,158
Paperback
181 offers from $2.22
Deborah Cameron
27
Paperback
40 offers from $9.37
Ira Katznelson
604
Paperback
79 offers from $4.35
Miah Jeffra
9
Paperback
21 offers from $16.01
Eduardo Galeano
1,607
Paperback
76 offers from $6.48

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Best Books of the Month, June 2012: From the dusty plains of North Dakota to the coal-veined hills of West Virginia to the desolate and ravaged streets of Camden N.J., Pulitzer Prize winner Chris Hedges and award-winning cartoonist/journalist Joe Sacco introduce us to the nation's "sacrifice zones"--those regions where, in the authors' view, corporate greed has run wild, and the locals have suffered. A unique mashup of investigative journalism, man-on-the-street reportage, graphic novel, and anti-corporate manifesto, the result is a riveting and often chilling account of America's forgotten zones. The balance between Hedges' narrative nonfiction storytelling and Sacco's intimate and very human sketches is surprisingly effective. And the stark depictions (both written and visual) of abandoned coal mines and empty downtowns and crumbling houses are heartbreaking, as are the stories of people struggling to survive. This is a special and important book. --Neal Thompson

Review

“Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt is a harrowing account of the exploited American underclass…. It is their stories that shape Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt to be a mesmeric indictment of an America that has failed its populace…. From the title alone it is evident that neither Hedges nor Sacco remain objective or shy away from the palpable condemnation of capitalism and the American government. Regardless, they develop an accurate account of the despondency that plagues and divides American culture. This is an imperative read in an era where widespread economic depression and grief reign supreme…. Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt is powerful and remarkable, arguably one of the best publications of the year.”

Ecolocalizer.com
“One of the most significant books published this year.”
Winnipeg Free Press (Canada)
“This is an important book.”
Ed Garvey, Garvey Blog
“It is a fascinating journey… This book hit me in the gut. It will move you to engage in battle.”

Caffeinated Muslim
“[R]ead Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt to know what is happening in this country.”
The Stranger (Seattle)

“Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt is a journey through contemporary American misery and what can be done to change the course, interpreted through the eyes of two of today's most relevant literary journalists…. The graphics illustrate what words alone cannot, capturing a past as it's told, where there's no longer anything left to photograph.”
Public Books
“[T]he radical disjunction between how Hedges and Sacco approach their subjects is fascinating and instructive. Hedges is at ease with the grand, sweeping Howard Zinn–moments of matchbook history…. And if sweeping, historical connect-the-dots is your cup of tea, then you will find Hedges deeply moving. But if, like Sacco, you distrust all history that does not have a face, a name, and a voice behind it, you will find more to call you to action in the voices that speak from the decimated landscapes of America's deepest poverty, which we (like Dickens's “telescopic philanthropists”) know even less well than we do the sufferings of peoples halfway around the world. Together, Sacco and Hedges might just have created a form that can speak across divides unbridgeable without the supplement of graphic narrative.”
Ian Chant, Geekosystem

“As someone who's long been a fan of Sacco's international reporting, there's something truly jarring about seeing him turn his eye to the many Americans who are suffering and barely getting by…. [H]ighly recommended for anyone who wants to see the comics medium at its strongest and most human.”
The Capital Times
“[B]rilliant.”
Joe Gross, Austin American-Statesman
“…a bleak, fist-shaking look at the effects of global capitalism in the United States.”
Globe and Mail (Canada)
“This is a book that should warm the hearts of political activists such as Naomi Klein or the nonagenerian Pete Seeger. And cause apoplexy among the Tea Party and its fellow travellers…. Sure, it's a polemic, but it's a polemic with a human face.”
LiteraryOutpost.com
“Hedges gives us the commentary, the narrative; Joe Sacco provides us with a piece of graphic nonfiction to give us a visual. The combination is excellent and telling.”

PopMatters.com

“The stories shift seamlessly from Hedges's passionate, on-the-ground reporting to Sacco's intricate landscapes and humanizing portraits, penned with the kind of fine, stark detail that is often lost in a photograph…. Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt is a gripping and thoroughly researched polemic.”
By the Book Reviews
“Chris Hedges… is the journalistic master of demonstrative evidence and never more so than in this book…. Using the stark, black-and-white style of graphic novels, [Joe] Sacco presents… illustrations which, if they don't break your heart you're not really worthy of having one…. You will want to read this one.”
Kirkus (Starred Review)
“An unabashedly polemic, angry manifesto that is certain to open eyes, intensify outrage and incite argument about corporate greed…. Through immersion reportage and graphic narrative, the duo illuminate the human and environmental devastation in those communities, with the warning that no one is immune…. A call for a new American revolution, passionately proclaimed.”

San Francisco/Sacramento Book Review

“This searing indictment of our unsustainable society is unsettling. To keep our chance for dignity, we must do our part to champion the organizers and whistleblowers, committee members and protesters. Amen. Pass the word.”
Toward Freedom
"[H]arrowing descriptions…. Hedges tells the story, not only of the people but of the town, and despite the differences in setting, certain similarities show through: poverty, addiction, violence; but more than that, a long series of broken promises and mounting despair. Sacco illustrates these chapters with his distinctive, careful line drawings…. [A]n excellent piece of journalism -- engaging, troubling, and in its own way, beautiful.”
Star-Ledger
“As quixotic as the quest may seem, Days of Destruction brings the rhetoric and the reality into a nobler focus after a very disturbing tour.”
Midwest Book Review/California Bookwatch
“A powerful social and political exploration.”
Brooklyn Rail, Sept 2012
“Sacco brings his formidable skill to bear in Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt.”

Asbury Park Press

Boston Globe
“Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt (Nation) is as moving a portrait of poverty and as compelling a call to action as Michael Harrington's ‘The Other America,' published in 1962.”

Philadelphia Weekly
“The tales therein—both the intimate personal ones and the big sociopolitical ones—are as unsettling as they are impossible to put down.”

Metro (UK)
“Eloquently written and embellished by spare, desolate drawings from Joe Sacco, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt is accessible and deeply uncomfortable.”
Financial Times
“[A] growling indictment of corporate America.”

Bookslut
"Hedges carries the mantle of Upton Sinclair, Howard Zinn, George Orwell, and all the agitators in fighting for the soul of nations when so many have forgotten what that means. His eloquence is in the eloquence of the lives he presents, and Sacco lovingly animates them. It's rare that a book carries so much courage and conviction, forcing reflection and an urge to immediately rectify the problems."
Associated Press

“… a scorching look at communities burned out not by foreign bombs but by American capitalism.”
Denver Post
“…a unique hybrid of investigative journalism, graphic novel and polemic.”
Guardian (UK)
“…a heartfelt, harrowing picture of post-capitalist America.”
Ralph Nader
“[B]rilliant combination of prose and graphic comics."
Seattle Times
“The book is a primer for every American who is overwhelmed by the uncertainty of the stock market, who wonders where America's muscle went, and how much heavy lifting our kids will face.” –
Portland Mercury
“As a portrait of poverty, the book succeeds stunningly well.”
Barnes and Noble Review
“When their narrative culminates in Zucotti Park, readers will feel just as outraged as the protesters portrayed on the page.”
Straight.com (Canada)
“The scenes in [Hedges'] new book, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, unflinchingly depict the pockets of America in the worst shape, with the highest unemployment, poverty, and crime rates.”
WarIsACrime.org
“[A] treasure.”
Grantland

“…provides close accounts of some of the country's most devastated communities, "sacrifice zones." It ends with a detailed history of the Occupy protests and a declaration that "the mighty can fall.”

Portland Monthly magazine
"Days of Destruction is a riveting indictment of America's failures.”

Seattle Times
“The book is a primer for every American who is overwhelmed by the uncertainty of the stock market, who wonders where America's muscle went, and how much heavy lifting our kids will face.”
Bill Moyers
“The journalist Chris Hedges is a unique force today, because of his fierce independence and candor. He's been writing about how politics is a charade aimed at making voters think the personal narrative of the candidate is the story although it never affects the operation of the corporate state. No matter which candidate wins, the money power in Washington reigns. That nails it, don't you think?”

New York Times Book Review
“Sacco's sections are uniformly brilliant. The tone is controlled, the writing smart, the narration neutral…. This is an important book.”
Brooklyn Rail Rapid Transit, Oct 2012

“Days of Destruction Days of Revolt examines how corruption and greed have shaped the history of the United States in an unfortunate way…. This is an excellent book for those who actually need a reason to revolt, and should be read by anyone seeking public office.”  Book Group Buzz, Booklist Online“Be prepared for an emotional experience without a happy ending. Be prepared to be defensive. Be prepared to be angry. Be prepared to be ashamed…. [T]he book is accompanied by sections that area a graphic novel approach to the individual stories of the real people interviewed in these zones of despair. What is so overpowering, and discussable, in these biographies is that they read as much like a confessional as they do a history…. Can there be anything more important to discuss?” OpEdNews.com“This is indeed an extraordinary, must read book.”

Curled Up With a Good Book

Start reading Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Nation Books; 1st edition (June 12, 2012)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1568586434
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1568586434
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
Grade level ‏ : ‎ 11 and up
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.85 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.25 x 1 x 10.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #724,154 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #695 in Poverty
- #1,333 in Human Geography (Books)
- #1,895 in Political Conservatism & Liberalism

Customer Reviews:
456 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Chris Hedges

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Chris Hedges is a cultural critic and author who was a foreign correspondent for nearly two decades for The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News, The Christian Science Monitor and National Public Radio. He reported from Latin American, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He was a member of the team that won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for The New York Times coverage of global terrorism, and he received the 2002 Amnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Journalism. Hedges, who holds a Master of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School, is the author of the bestsellers American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle and was a National Book Critics Circle finalist for his book War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning. He is a Senior Fellow at The Nation Institute and writes an online column for the web site Truthdig. He has taught at Columbia University, New York University, Princeton University and the University of Toronto.

Customer reviews

5 star		77%
4 star		14%
3 star		4%
2 star		2%
1 star		3%

How are ratings calculated?

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Stephen Handrop

Deeply Disturbing Content

Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2019

Verified Purchase

This book is extremely difficult, emotionally, to read through. I've been having to take it one chapter at a time because it is so heartwrenching. I've had the book for 2 months now (since May 29th) and I've just finished chapter 3. I'm not a slow reader, I probably could've finished it in a few hours if it weren't for the content involved. I am deeply moved (to lamentations and profound listlessness) after reading about what has happened. I especially found it difficult to get past the racially charged content but I did for the sole purpose of understanding the very real torment and pain that fellow Americans have endoured from all backgrounds. I wanted to put the book down in anger several times but like seeing a trainwreck happen in slow motion, no one can look away. If there is anything to say about this book, it is that it illicits compassion and understanding for those outside your own cultural background, because the book talks about many in so short a discussion. If you aren't crying at any point (inside or out) by end of chapter 3 or affected on a profound level by what you've read, then you fail to have placed yourself in the shoes of those outside your experiences. So many lives have been destroyed. So many. If there's anything I learned so far it is that you don't need to call it a war for it to be a detrimental and violent experience for those affected. Lady Liberty is patina from all the tears she weeps.

I study global scale problems, looking for newly released technological or philosophical answers for solving them on regional and localized scales. I haven't yet been able to get past the sadness associated with the content of this book to even begin to seek out potential solutions yet. Something has been going very, very wrong on such a grand design scale and for so long that I question the viability and survivability of the culture and way of life I was born into. I fear for my fellow Americans from all walks of life, all creeds, cultures and backgrounds. The silence is deafening and the violence of it all is overwhelming at it's core.

The only reason I knocked off one star for this book is because there are pointed statements, claims that where made generalized rather then specified. The writer seems to have painted a picture in terms of black and white, us and them. I haven't completed reading the book yet, so will update this review upon completion. I STRONGLY advocate its purchase or at the very least read it cover to cover if your local library has a copy. If you are a problem solver, this work is a complicated challenge quagmired in political swamps, social upheaval and a kind of financial instability that can only best be described as "complete insolvency for the future of humanity as a civilized society due to greed." There is nothing civil about it, and this book cuts to the core of a profoundly disturbing subject. Financial interests have taken priority over the human element.

Update: July 22nd. Upon completion of reading the book, cover to cover I must conclude that my opinion on the content hasn't changed much. There are some elements of racism contained in this book but the context must be read to understand and determine where it is coming from. There are also strong anti-capitalist sentiments within the content, but coming from the standpoint of environmental degredation as well as the complete disregard for human life and human capital as they pertain to community stability overall. The book is a STRONG BUY, if only for the storytelling element alone. Though I am concerned that the book may incite hate towards specific ethnicities rather than identified individuals, the authors do a fantastic job of bringing to light stories not otherwise searchable in news and other media outlets. I stand firm on my stance that the book has strong elements of "us vs. them" mentalities, and there is clearly zero understanding involved in how the stock market or business works on a fundamental level. If I had a sit down with the author, it would result in another book. I've been working on a way to serve the disenfranchised by developing "plug and play" or "key in door" solutions that can be emulated on shoestring budgets and from 3rd world country scenarios. I've found a few solutions to some of the elements the problems the author speaks about and the potential to end unemployment as we know it today without dropping elements of automation which have affected everyone around the world.

In this highly competitive 21st century we live in, we must understand as a combined force- humanity as a whole, that automation offers us all the freedom from menial tasks which limit our own potential. The missing element in the economy thus far has been the complete replacement of the old, dead system which has never worked for anyone born after 1975. What we need are those automations made cheaper and available to more consumers for the purpose of dropping industry pricing and more home based businesses.

My own solutions focus on environmental restoration as a commercial endeavor and to alleviate the brunt of prolonged unemployment through financial tactics and combined efforts of business endeavors. The author's sequal should focus entirely on the solutions the world has come up with to resolve the existing problems of today. As much as I appreciate the history lesson, it doesn't help the starving homeless and the bankrupted disenfranchised to look for a target group to blame for all these ills. Instead, step out of the 20th century decay and rot. Stroll effortlessly right into the 21st century, where the age of collaboration has reached full swing and is now cresting and about to overlap the next age.

This book is a fascinating read and I am deeply affected by it on an emotional level. However, cerebrally, I've already jumped past the problems and have been trying to find the solutions. Humanity literally doesn't have the time left required to fight out a war and the kind of war we need isn't against one another but a race against the clock to rebalance the earth's ecosystem before it's too late. I personally feel that we may have already passed the point of no return with the climate but trying to place blame on one group of people doesn't fix the problem but instead serves as a distraction when there is real work to be done.

13 people found this helpful

Helpful

Todd30

Insightful and compelling. Read it twice.

Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2015

Verified Purchase

It's about a handful of locations around the US where people are leading absolutely miserable lives of poverty, hopelessness, and degradation. The basic crux is that human beings are being exploited almost to the point of sacrifice and slavery in the name of greed, selfishness, and general immorality, and that it is a precursor to what is in store for the majority of us as an inevitable consequence of the political and economic ideologies that we've adopted.

At its best, the book is moving, informative, and insightful. It does an excellent job of showing the bigger picture without losing focus on the single individuals being harmed the most. What impressed me more than anything else was the moral core to the book -- the central purpose and moral clarity that informed basically all of it. He never shies away from condemning evil or pointing to the root cause of evil, and the moral outrage and empathy are palpable. Ultimately, it's an outstanding book of insight and a call to action that everyone should read.

39 people found this helpful

Helpful

master craftsman

Do you really want to know what's happening to America, or not?

Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2019

Verified Purchase

Chris Hedges is a master of the english language and passionate working Pulitzer prize journalist that has been banned from most network TV and radio. He tours America to report on the results of our political abandonment of working middle class lives around the country. He delivers a very detailed account from a historical and his worldly experience but never boring. He believes the only way we can recover our peoples democracy is to enfranchise the people left out of our country's surging wealth. If all journalists had Hedge's integrity, bravery, and knowledge our country would be much better off in 2019.

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

Galahad

Dangerous truth telling

Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2020

Verified Purchase

Four vignettes combining the collaboration of the extraordinary usually solitary authors, who are describing the same inescapable disturbing Truth about our emerging dystopia. arguably the the most Distinguished, articulate, courageous author, with an Unparalleled graphic meticulous artist / reporter, points to the deep incurable wound, festering in our society, a monstrous destroyer of worlds , that eats its own people.
Indeed, in the Orwellian tradition, truth tellers should expect trouble: isolation,, distortion, and defamation.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

The Scholarly Serpent

A Vivid Look at The Victims of Modern Day Corporate Exploitation

Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2014

Verified Purchase

Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt takes the reader on a journey to an Indian reservation in the west, a run-down Camden New Jersey, the agricultural fields of Florida, and the environmental wastelands of West Virginia. We see how the people who live in these places are exploited for their labor or left to wallow in despair as the victims of a de-industrialized and slowly collapsing economy. This book is definitely a wake up call to all those Americans who still live comfortably within the confines of suburbia or to the lucky few who live in wealthy neighborhoods. Most of them still remain in denial as they ignore all the warning signs and all the despair of their underclassmen, but the coming collapse will affect everyone, not just the poor and downtrodden. The story of America might end up becoming a tragedy as this country continues to cannibalize itself, while destroying our environment in the process.

This book doesn't leave much to hope for. Although the Occupy Movement gave a glimmer of hope, it quickly died out. My only hope is that after the American economy, wall street, and the big banks collapse; Americans will wise up and form a new economic and governmental system that is sustainable, environmentally friendly, and better represents all of America, not just a select few.

Every empire that has ever existed has fallen, the American empire is no different.

23 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

conjunction

Unflinching Picture of Modern Capitalism

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 5, 2014

Verified Purchase

I came to this book because of my enthusiasm for the work of Joe Sacco, but finished it searching on the internet for more info about the ideas of Chris Hedges, who for me is one of the most articulate radicals i have come across in a very long time.

Sacco is one of a kind, a political investigative journalist through the media of comic strips. I have several of his books, and particularly enjoyed "Safe Area Gorazde", an account of the conflict in Bosnia. He puts you on the ground and introduces you to his friends and associates.

He does the same thing here as he and Hedges visit four areas, where interestingly four different racial groups have been chewed up and spat out by corporate America. These are Pine Ridge Indian reservation, Camden New Jersey where departing manufacturing industry has left little but a drug culture, the Appalachian mountains, where mountains are literally taken apart in open cast coal mining, and Florida where Central American immigrant labour is exploited in tomato picking without any kind of regulation.

The common theme is that corporate industry has bought and sold government at police, state and federal levels in such a way that whereas lipservice is paid to liberal and constitutional ethics and standards, in practice justice is not a commodity that is generally available for poor working class people, at least not without a fight.

As an English person several of these scenarios were new to me. Corruption is not quite as entrenched or uninhibited I don't think in my country, although it works in a similar way.

The section on Pine Ridge stands out because the travesties of justice go back a hundred and fifty years or more, and we realise that what we are seeing now all over was always the American way when ethics come up against profit.

Hedges' writing is very impressive. If you research him on the internet as I have done you discover he has a track record of reporting oppression and over the years has put himself at risk in a number of situations, he seems a fairly committed guy.

He is also very thoughtful and spiritual as a person. His point of view is never negative imo. A lot of people found this book depressing according to the reviews. I didn't. I found it truly shocking, and I speak as a guy who has thousands of books on his shelf, many of them about history and politics. This book is shocking because it talks to real people, depicts them, and then comes up with a poltical narrative built up from their experience, and it demonstrates the conflict between the "democratic" narrative and reality.

The final chapter is about the Occupy movement, and Hedges gives his poltical credo. I am not sure what I think about this but it is cohesive, clearly put, and far more intelligent than any other such credo I have read for several decades at a political level. it is easy to criticise and not easy to come up with a plan, and this is a fairly intelligent and unflinching attempt at least.

This book is an up to date indictment of modern capitalism and put together in an extremely thought-provoking way

6 people found this helpful

Warren Flood

The most transformational and emotive piece of hard journalism that I have read to date.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 5, 2015

Verified Purchase

Probably the most powerful combination of formats I have ever experienced this book will blow you away. As journalism goes this work is a landmark in terms of the use of medium to transport the reader into the situation and context unlike anything before it. It utilises this to portray very complex social problems and personal histories in a way that feels intuitive to the reader, to the extent that you become unaware that you are imaging yourself as the subject and it is only after reading that you realise just how affected you have been.

The material itself deals with the most important and overlooked issues that face Americans in our generation, however much of it has been dealt with before. Critically however, it has never been processed (or rather the lack of over-processing) or presented in this way.

Entirely different to anything I have ever read and any of Hedges other works.

One person found this helpful

Conor Mcvarnock

essential

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 16, 2012

Verified Purchase

This is essential stuff for anyone who is interested on the dynamics driving contemporary america. The first four chapters each are brilliantly written investigative pieces on some of the places at the sharp end of the contemporary crisis in industrial capitalism. The first chapter excavates Americas past through looking at the bloody legacy of the creation of the country and how it bleeds into the present. It takes in life and death on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota and looks at the issues of dispossession that the Sioux people have to live with. The second chapter looks at the inner cities (specifically, Camden NJ.) and charts many of the processes that anyone who has seen The Wire will be familiar with. Chapter 3 looks at West Virginia and the murder of communities of the rural poor by the Coal industry. In chapter 4 we're in the Florida and looking at the fresh produce industry.

The themes that connect each of these chapters is the degradation of the physical landscape, the dispossession of its population and their sacrifice before the altar of an increasingly rapacious and destructive capitalism. In illustrating this Joe Saccos drawings are brutally illuminating. The comic strips that intersperse the text, each of which tells the life story of one of the inhabitants of these areas, also brings the stories of these people and their world to life in uncomfortable and uncompromising detail.

The last chapter details what the author hopes, and what many of us still hope, is the beginnings of a large scale fight back with the occupy movement. Its good that the author finishes on a note of hope. Seriously, after reading about West Virginia I was genuinely puzzled as to why america doesn't have more indigenous terrorists in the Appalachians going all ELF on the bastards and taking out a few of those big ass multi million pound earth-rapers the mining companies use. You could see it couldn't you? A few hillbillies baking up batches of backyard dynamite in their out houses or pilfering it from the mining companies themselves, merking some heavy equipment and disappearing off back into the hills. I suppose he does answer this one indirectly by making the point that most people tend to opt for escape (either physical through internal migration or figurative into the haze of OxyContyn) as a less dangerous option. I suppose when you stand up and fight its because you have something to fight for and by god they aren't leaving them much of that.

The authors commentary on the Occupy movement and its methods of organisation and resistance do a lot to balance some of the nihilism of the previous chapters. In it though you can see some of the issues and contradictions that would become more apparent as occupy spread across the world, and a few of the very real problems with it are left unaddressed. That said, it is nice to have an insiders account of the beginnings of something that I at least have confidence will be seen as a real turning point.

I've seen other people dismissing this book as polemic. Well, I think thats fair enough, but its necessary to counteract the constant one sided braincandy pumped out by the mainstream media. The carnival of consumerist apologia has given enough air space and time to the system and its defenders, frankly more is not needed. There is an urgent need in fact for more of this kind of stuff and I hope it gets the airing it deserves.

2 people found this helpful

David Gibson

Great Condition, Arrived Early

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 22, 2020

Verified Purchase

Well packaged, not wasteful. Arrived a few days earlier than expected. Second hand book - it was in great condition, at least as good as described.

Liam108

Bleak but important

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 25, 2012

Verified Purchase

The American Dream is one of the most powerful myths of all time. It is so powerful because one of its main tenets appeals to a basic sense of justice which dictates that if you work hard, you should be rewarded in kind. This is America's promise. In 'Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt', Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco show this promise to be tragically hollow.

Hedges is a former New York Times journalist who has previously won the Pulitzer prize. Joe Sacco is the pioneer of 'comics journalism', and the author of a number of excellent works in that genre. 'Days of Destruction...' is largely a collection of prose reportage supported by detailed drawings by Sacco, along with a number of longer comic strips which tell particular parts of a certain character's story. It is an interesting idea, and one which is executed with mixed success.

The book contains five sections in total. The first four focus on places in America facing extreme poverty and exploitation at the hands of corporate and governmental elites - Pine Ridge, South Dakota; Camden, New Jersey; southern West Virginia; and Immokalee, Florida. The fifth section looks at Occupy Wall Street and what it might mean for the future. All concern people who have done what they were supposed to for their share in the American Dream, and were dispossessed in the name of power and profit.

Hedges is foremost an excellent writer. His prose is simple, crisp, and engaging. He provides vivid portraits of characters, places and their stories; fitting them neatly into a wider context, and in some cases even adding a bit of theoretical background to bolster his arguments. He is clearly disgusted at what he has seen in his country, writing furiously in the hope that the stories he tells will gain wider attention. This lends him an air of deep compassion, but also, at times, a degree of sanctimoniousness. From time to time I felt that his sympathy for the people he interviewed (and indeed the fact that he avoided interviewing anyone on the opposing side of an issue in all but one case) skewed the reality of the stories a stroke too far, but then again, this isn't supposed to be objective reporting; it's a worthy expression of outrage at needless indignity and squalor. Particularly interesting was the part about Camden, New Jersey. Though it tells a story similar to that of many East Coast cities, the corruption and brutality of Camden's experience is both moving and depressing, evoked sensitively by Hedges. The Pine Ridge, South Dakota story is also very good, but is difficult to read since it portrays the diminished and broken people living on a native American reservation, forgotten by the rest of America, condemned to a life of alcohol, drugs, and crime.

The contributions by Sacco are fewer, but when set alongside prose, they serve to highlight the largely unrecognised strengths of 'comics journalism'. While Hedges with his writing can sometimes lapse into tracts of righteous indignation, the form Sacco works with allows him room only to let the subjects speak. There is no space for preaching. As a result, the reports are often stark and shocking in the terseness - perhaps even the banality - with which they tell of endless heartbreak, tragedy and suffering. It is true that Sacco has to take liberties with his drawings, which because they seek to put together a story from the past, he must base to a good extent on his own imagination. But his gift for capturing important moments, and teasing out a person's humanity make his journalism uniquely affecting. I was a little disappointed there were not more comic strips from Sacco in this book, but I can imagine it probably took him just as long to do what he did as it took Hedges to write the other 200 or so pages, such is the detail of Sacco's work.

One thing that left me unconvinced was the final section on Occupy Wall Street. While I am broadly sympathetic to its cause and appreciated the insight the piece gave, I felt Hedges avoided looking at some of the deeper issues it raises. For example, I am not sure there is a better alternative to a properly regulated free-market economy, and Hedges didn't question any of his interviewees about the possibility that capitalism may be a good thing, and that better regulation rather than dissolution could be a safer and more beneficial solution to what we have now. I was also concerned about the kinds of anarchistic power structures which seemed to develop there. Though in an ideal world I could be happy living in an anarcho-syndicalist community, in reality this seems completely impossible for a number of reasons. Hedges accepted this anarchistic take on the organisation without raising any of the general problems with the theory. Nonetheless, I found the details of the way the organisation developed quite compelling, and the intelligence, empathy, and eloquence of the people interviewed was heartening.

'Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt' is an important work which shows how people in America have been brutally beaten down by the quest for profit, but also how they refuse to be defeated by continually fighting back and never losing hope. There is a brilliant quote by H. L. Mencken which is included in the book which perfectly sums up the attitudes of the authors and those they met:

"The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naïve and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair."

Though the traditional American Dream may be a lie, these people still love America and are doing their best to help make it into the place they know it can become.

5 people found this helpful

See all reviews

Follow the Author

Similar authors to follow

Books similar toDays of Destruction, Days of Revolt

Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt Hardcover – June 12, 2012

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Review

About the Author

Product details

About the author

Chris Hedges

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries