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

Synopsis

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.

Copyright:

2010

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

Book Size:

240 Pages

ISBN-13:

9780786749553

Related ISBNs:

9780786749553, 9781568586137

Publisher:

PublicAffairs

Date of Addition:

07/31/21

Copyrighted By:

Chris Hedges

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

Nonfiction, Computers and Internet, Social Studies, Communication, Politics and Government

Grade Levels:

Eighth grade, Ninth grade, Tenth grade, Eleventh grade, Twelfth grade, College Freshman, College Sophomore, College Junior, College Senior, Graduate Student, Undergraduate Student

Reading Age:

13 and up

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.