Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt

Jan 30, 2013 Blane rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, graphic-novels, politics, urban-decay, social-issues, class-warfare

I have been a fan of the work of both Chris Hedges & Joe Sacco for some time--Hedges for his astute observations (decidedly from a relatively leftist perspective) of America's decline in the 21st century & Sacco for his even-handed (& pretty unique) graphic take on the art of journalism. Their seemingly disparate takes on Native Americans in South Dakota, (primarily) African-Americans in Camden, New Jersey, white coal miners in West Virginia, and Mexican & Haitian immigrants in I...more I have been a fan of the work of both Chris Hedges & Joe Sacco for some time--Hedges for his astute observations (decidedly from a relatively leftist perspective) of America's decline in the 21st century & Sacco for his even-handed (& pretty unique) graphic take on the art of journalism. Their seemingly disparate takes on Native Americans in South Dakota, (primarily) African-Americans in Camden, New Jersey, white coal miners in West Virginia, and Mexican & Haitian immigrants in Immokalee, Florida are all brilliantly tied together in the book's final chapter, which focuses on the recent Occupy Movement (by way of the Paris Commune, Karl Marx, and the fall of the Soviet Union). All demonstrate how we are all victims of the unregulated, unfettered quest for profits in the corporate age, which is in the process of making us all serfs with little hope of ending the downward spiral...unless we act. The political class most certainly will not.

And that is where I slightly diverge from Hedges' viewpoint: His assumption that both political parties are essentially the same is fairly accurate, but nonetheless, (perhaps I am brainwashed) I think we will be much better off with Obama for another four years, rather than Romney and his "corporations are people, my friend" philosophy. Despite this minor disagreement, I consider this vital book among the best I have read in 2012 & an amazing pairing of written and graphic journalism.

As an aside: I was reading the book, just starting the chapter on Immokalee in a medical waiting room in Naples, Florida (where I live)--a "one percent", Tea Party stronghold to be sure...and a mere 25 miles from Immokalee (with little compassion shown for their plight from most of the local residents). An old lady sitting next to me glanced over at Sacco's illustration of Mexican pickers sitting in a former school bus on their way to the fields. Curious, she asked, "What's that you are reading?" I responded, "It's a book on the negative effects of unfettered capitalism. This chapter is on the plight of the Immokalee farm workers." Taken somewhat aback, she said, "Oh." Slight awkward pause, then "The illustration is so expressive." Indeed. (less)

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Jan 04, 2013 Mia rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: graphic-novels, favorites

I am a huge fan of Joe Sacco's work (Safe Area Goražde and Palestine are incredible) and this book does not disappoint! I do agree with some of the critiques that Chris Hedges' prose is a little tangential at times - but this book is powerful.

I highly recommend this book. I wish I could afford to buy a copy for everyone I know! This should be required reading for all Americans.

It is one of the gnarliest bummer books I've ever read. Unless you are heartless - you will cry! But unlike all the dep...more

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Oct 07, 2012 Curtis rated it 5 of 5 stars

In "Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt" Chris Hedges and cartoonist/journalist Joe Sacco take us with both words and illustrations to four impoverished sacrifice zones across the United States. The book starts on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, then transitions to Camden (New Jersey), the mining wastelands of West Virginia, the agricultural wage slave plantations of Florida, and then closes with a chapter on the Occupy movement based in Zuccotti Park (New York). The sacrifice...more In "Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt" Chris Hedges and cartoonist/journalist Joe Sacco take us with both words and illustrations to four impoverished sacrifice zones across the United States. The book starts on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, then transitions to Camden (New Jersey), the mining wastelands of West Virginia, the agricultural wage slave plantations of Florida, and then closes with a chapter on the Occupy movement based in Zuccotti Park (New York). The sacrifice zones, as they are termed in this book, depict slices of people and their environments that have been completely offered up upon the alters of greed ridden capitalism to be burned and reduced to ashes in the name of wealth and profit margins.

It is a powerful book, and Sacco's graphic novel style illustrations and dialogues only add to the book's stark presentment of a bleak American reality that exists for so many today - a reality that steadily encroaches further and further everyday into more people's and family's lives. Hedges' and Sacco's book doesn't give answers on how to fix the problems, but it is a call to unite and revolt. It is a plea to come out from behind the ignorance and deception of what you imagine this nation to be and to recognize that, except for an elite upper crust of society, we and our earth are on course for imminent disaster.

Hedges' final chapter on the Occupy movement was where I thought he would lose me. He remains even-keeled in his assessment of the movement though. He does not sensationalize it to be something that it wasn't. But he does see hope in it as a beginning of something - a future velvet revolution on American soil. He embraces the idea that America does in deed have the capacity to change course and correct itself into a democratic nation of civic equality, where human rights will trump corporate capitalistic infrastructures of exploitation and degradation. I don't think I share as much of his optimism, but hopefully I am wrong and he is right.(less)

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Jan 21, 2013 Jordan Gregory rated it 5 of 5 stars

"The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims, have been born of earnest struggle . . . If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be bo...more "The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims, have been born of earnest struggle . . . If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress." -Frederick Douglass

With this and countless other quotes, sources, testimonies, and illustrations by the talented Joe Sacco, Chris Hedges buttresses his already compelling histories of disadvantaged America.

In the "Days of Destruction" sections, the deterioration of Native American reservations in South Dakota, the socioeconomic decline of Camden, New Jersey, the coal mining and environmental conditions in West Virginia, and the heart-wrenching plights of undocumented workers and even modern-day SLAVES in Immokalee, Florida are all brought vividly to life through Hedges and Sacco's text and images. Readers come to understand not only what has happened, but how it has happened, and how it affects real people and places. It was a shocking and enlightening journey to take, and I'm glad these two award-winning authors have teamed up to make it possible.

The "Days of Revolt" section worried me after I read the introduction. It sounded as though Hedges and Sacco were going to offer solutions, guidelines, ideas, etc. that would help to overcome the "Days of Destruction" problems previously outlined, BUT in light of Occupy, they were shifting their focus to talk about only what's working in that movement. I love and admire Occupy, but I was disappointed at the prospect of this book narrowing its focus too severely. It turns out that my first impression was wrong. Hedges and Sacco did address Occupy, but in a more holistic way. They looked at what happened, what worked/works, what still needs work, and how these and other protests they've witnessed in Egypt, Syria, Israel/Palestine, and other places around the world and across time can all inspire social change in the United States. I was gobsmacked, and bumped my rating up from four to five stars accordingly.

My one point of hesitation: Hedges tends toward hyperbole. In "Days of Revolt," the writing started to feel damning to anyone and everyone who is not directly involved with Occupy or a similar endeavor. Hell, I felt guilty for READING the book instead of fighting for justice in some godforsaken American enclave out there. However, as much as this book started to feel accusatory, Hedges has every right to be. Our nation is beleaguered by real problems and injustices, and we should all be doing our part to overcome them. Horrible things are happening in this country (especially in Imokalee and other agricultural communities); Hedges is outraged, and he intends for us all to be outraged. I certainly am. (less)

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Apr 20, 2013 Dan added it

Shelves: 2013

despite their shared politcs, sacco and hedges are a bit of an odd couple. sacco's instinct to get out of the way and let people tell their own stories is the key ingredient to his magic (imo), whereas hedges can't wait to turn each tale of misery into a bullet-point in his ongoing treatise against neoliberal capitalism.

don't get me wrong - this is a good book that does us all a great service by telling the stories it tells. i spent most of my life in philadelphia - a 15 minute subway ride from...more

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Apr 03, 2013 Dennis D. rated it 4 of 5 stars

I could make a terrific reading list that consisted only of books that I grab off my wife’s nightstand when she’s done reading them. DoD/DoR would be a great addition to such a list.

According to the notes on the dust jacket, it's an exploration of "areas [of the U.S.] that have been offered up for exploitation in the name of profit, progress, and technological advancement". Author Chris Hedges supplies much of the prose, while author/cartoonist Joe Sacco (Palestine Vol. 1 A Nation Occupied and i...more

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Mar 11, 2013 Andrea Mullarkey rated it 4 of 5 stars

It’s a little hard to classify this book but if pressed I would call it illustrated investigative journalism…with an agenda. And really, the agenda is the most important part of the book. In five chapters, each focused on a different US location, Hedges and Sacco expose what they call the sacrifice zones. These are the places where towns, communities, local industries have been displaced, cannibalized or simply destroyed by large corporate interests. Because there are few things that places as d...more

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Feb 17, 2013 Veganpike rated it 4 of 5 stars

While I think it was important to profile the communities the author chose in this book, I ultimately did not come away from reading it with much hope or sense that there was reason to believe things will get better anytime soon. Hedges' unfortunate use of the Occupy movement as a harbinger of Major Social Change comes off, just a year or so later, as both sad and naive. I also think that even though I appreciate his attempt to find and profile a diversity of people and places dealing with the s...more

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Dec 22, 2012 Peggy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: west-virginia

The authors visit "sacrifice zones" in the United States where all community, life, and hope are set aside in order to serve corporate power. I agree with the NYT review that the book is most compelling when the authors describe what they witness and let the remarkable individuals that they meet, such as recently departed mountain hero Larry Gibson, tell their own stories. The final chapter discusses theories of world revolution within the context of the Occupy Wall Street movement and is angry,...more The authors visit "sacrifice zones" in the United States where all community, life, and hope are set aside in order to serve corporate power. I agree with the NYT review that the book is most compelling when the authors describe what they witness and let the remarkable individuals that they meet, such as recently departed mountain hero Larry Gibson, tell their own stories. The final chapter discusses theories of world revolution within the context of the Occupy Wall Street movement and is angry, brilliant, and insightful. Though this was probably not the intent of the authors, the book reminded me of the importance of small, personal acts in the fight against what Hedges calls, "corporate totalitarianism." That would include, for example, growing our own tomatoes or buying locally rather than supporting worker exploitation and slavery in Florida.

Most of us accommodate with only minimal twinges of guilt the powers that are at present destroying our earth and the lives of the unfortunates who dwell in sacrifice zones. The authors urge us to view these unfortunates as the canaries in the coal mine, a signal that this will be the future of us all (or of 99% of us). Though I appreciate the tour and the lessons provided, I am reminded that when given the opportunity, I did not join in the battle against mountaintop removal in West Virginia, because I saw that it would be all-consuming, and I was not willing to risk my comfortable home and job to do so. However, I do not find the revolutionary movements that Hedges describes to be so comforting. And I would remind him of the devolution of the United Mine Workers of America as he describes it, the heroism of John L. Lewis succeeded by corrupt power-mongers who murdered reformer Jock Yablonski and his family.

The book raises essential questions that all citizens should be discussing and I think we are discussing them, slowly, as the horrors of our way of life impinge upon the lives of the middle class. Do we value the profits of weapons manufacturers and the gospel of the NRA more than the lives of first graders and educators, for example? I'm more inclined to see reform, not revolution, as the likely response, while acknowledging that the end of our civilization is a logical eventual outcome.

Obviously, this book provides much to think about. Because of that, I'm changing my rating from four to five stars. (less)

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Dec 10, 2012 David rated it 5 of 5 stars

one of the most brilliant book ever read..the vivid accounts of the current decline of America's value destroyed by the corporatocracy that originated from the liberalistic yet right winged country..Author takes u into the hearts of darkness of America: i) the complete destruction of Native Indian culture and values due to alcoholism, colonialistic impact, extreme poverty, loss of their homeland due the gradual government's evil laws ii) Camden, NJ was a flourished city but raped and robbed by c...more

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Dec 05, 2012 Nora rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is an interesting book about Pine Ridge, Indian Country; Camden, NJ; a mining town; farm laboring wage slaves; and Occupy Wall Street. The best parts are the personal stories, Studs Terkel-style, which are illustrated into comic book panels. They show the incredible dignity and humor that people can have despite being mired in poverty, sexual abuse, and addiction in the USA. It's all interesting information that you need to know, but it was so bleak and depressing that I had to skim some pa...more

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Nov 24, 2012 Annette LeBox rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: review

Devastating and heartbreaking, Pulitzer Prize-winner Chris Hedges and award-winning cartoonist and journalist Joe Sacco traveled across America to present in pictures and words the personal stories of those who have been most affected by unfettered capitalism. The two traveled to Pine Ridge, South Dakota to interview Native Americans, to the unemployed in Camden New Jersey where crime and poverty are destroying the community, to West Virginia where mountain top removal for coal mining has devast...more

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Nov 06, 2012 Michelle rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: graphic-novel, non-fiction

Like other reviewers have said, Joe Sacco's parts were better. They stuck to detailing the lives of ordinary people and capturing illustrations of blighted lands and desolate neighborhoods.

I just could get into Chris Hedges' poverty porn. The chapters were montonuous to me : oppressed group, how they got oppressed, individual biography, bright spot of organizing and action, another bio (maybe), mention of US military, drug use local to region, despair, and a religious figure who talk of hope and...more

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Oct 09, 2012 Patrick rated it 3 of 5 stars

As others have noted, Sacco has contributed the stronger part of this book. His comics detail in moving form the degradation inflicted on society and the environment by rapacious powers. Hedges is also good when he sticks to pure reporting; the four stories about life at the margins in South Dakota, New Jersey, West Virginia and Florida bring humanity to situations easy to gloss over in a newspaper article. Unfortunately, Hedges can't let the facts themselves generate outrage and indignation in...more

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Sep 24, 2012 Margaret Sankey rated it 3 of 5 stars

If you're going to use history in your critique, you need to do better than fall back on one-stop, tired, lefty history from Howard Zinn and give some credit to the real pioneering work from the bottom that scholars have done in the last 30 years, and someone has to put a moratorium on using the Jered Diamond Easter Island story, since it is being significantly challenged. Hedges also shies away from a really uncomfortable problem--that the poor are often an extremely conservative force whose ad...more If you're going to use history in your critique, you need to do better than fall back on one-stop, tired, lefty history from Howard Zinn and give some credit to the real pioneering work from the bottom that scholars have done in the last 30 years, and someone has to put a moratorium on using the Jered Diamond Easter Island story, since it is being significantly challenged. Hedges also shies away from a really uncomfortable problem--that the poor are often an extremely conservative force whose adherence to "values" voting and action often keeps them away from participating in the change that might help them and prevents bridges with mainstream activism--examples of the heroic coal country preachers who understand their own environmental destruction but insist the earth is 6,000 years old or the virulently racist and homophobic machismo of leaders of the farm workers.

That said, this is a devastating chronicle of a radioactive process that has laid waste to whole sections of America--just as very few people succeed entirely on their own, not many fuck up all by themselves, either. By the time they make the crucial bad decision that unravels into a felony, or chronic unemployment, or addiction, they're part of a historical process of alienation and systematic disadvantage that they may only vaguely understand or know about. Unable to locate the source of their rage, they lash out at targets close at hand--their women and children, their ethnically or religiously different neighbors, local authority, exacerbating the situation (and sometimes the institutions that offer comfort and stability--churches and gangs make the problem worse, too). Authority becomes reactive, and the population becomes defiant and fatalistic in response, vulnerable to alcohol, meth, crack or other insidious corruption. At this point, in blighted areas stripped out of basic services of the social contract, people exist in a separate America administered by the BIA, the coal companies, agribusiness or whatever the hell is going on in Camden, NJ. And then the really fatal blow--it is political poison to suggest help for any of these people because assistance would be "rewarding" the bad behavior of some spectacularly unsympathetic people.

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Sep 22, 2012 Michael rated it 3 of 5 stars

Joe Sacco is fantastic, here & elsewhere. His work is the smaller part of this book, but it's by far the better: his reporting is sensitive, subtle, and obviously the product of tremendous time and care.

The prose comes in five chapters: four on poverty-stricken, violently repressed corners of America, and one on Occupy Wall St. The first four are mostly solid, thorough ideological reporting. The last doesn't belong. It's pure, grandiose rhetoric, held aloft only by its own fumes.

The book's t...more

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Aug 05, 2012 Dawn rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

Wow. Important and powerful. I couldn't put it down. A searing look at our failings as a nation and a society and where they have led us. This is not an easy book to read - many will prefer not to read it - to "look away" from the devastation we, as citizens, have allowed to happen to our neighbors and countrymen in our name. Looking away because it's uncomfortable - that is what got us here and what they ("they" being the rich and powerful of the corporate state that we live in) encourage in or...more

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Nov 05, 2012 Patrick McCoy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: current-affairs, graphic-novels, non-fiction

Days Of Destruction Days Of Revolt (2012) is a collaboration between Pulitzer prize winning journalist Chris Hedges and comic reporter Joe Sacco. Of the two I am most familiar with Sacco and read his 2012 book Journalism earlier this year. In this volume the authors investigate the human misery that is taking place in America at the hands of the powers that be. Hedges calls these places "sacrifice zones, those areas in the country that have been offered up for exploitation in the name of profit,...more
Days Of Destruction Days Of Revolt (2012) is a collaboration between Pulitzer prize winning journalist Chris Hedges and comic reporter Joe Sacco. Of the two I am most familiar with Sacco and read his 2012 book Journalism earlier this year. In this volume the authors investigate the human misery that is taking place in America at the hands of the powers that be. Hedges calls these places "sacrifice zones, those areas in the country that have been offered up for exploitation in the name of profit, progress, and technological advancement." Each section has reporting by Hedges and illustrations from Sacco-most of Sacco's comics are the rendered experiences of a representative person from each location. The first of these places is the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota in "Days Of Theft"-which chronicles the poverty, violence, suicide, and alcohol abuse that personifies Indian reservations all over the nation. The next stop is Camden, New jersey in "Days Of Siege." This abandoned city is now home to violent crime and drug abuse after once having been a major industrial center. In "Days Of Devastation" the journalist move onto the mining community Welch, West Virgina that has chewed up and spit men out for more than a hundred years and now lays men low through the excessive pollution that comes from mountain stripping. Something that I know something about after having seen the award winning documentary Harland County, U.S.A. The mostly Latino population of the migrant worker is visited in Immokalee, Florida in the chapter "Days Of Slavery." After this depressing litany of exploitation Hedges and Sacco find hope in the Occupy movement in the final section "Days Of Revolt." I wish I could be as optimistic as they are in this chapter. But it seems that these injustices do not have to continue and that a push could be made toward stemming or staunching the waves of destruction unleashed by unfettered capitalism. This is especially poignant give that it is an election year. Perhaps, change will come about in the future, but I expect the status quo to march on in lock step in the near future. There is a lot of excellent information and reportage from Hedges and Sacco provides powerful profiles of those who have lived through the worst. It should be required reading for every conservative in the nation. (less)

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Jun 25, 2012 jeremy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: gen-nonfiction

chris hedges's writing and reportage is consistently trenchant and unequivocal, notable for its discerning examinations and penetrating insights. joe sacco's award-winning work as a cartoonist is as distinctive as it is compassionate. combining the immense talents of these two men can only result in a devastating, powerful book of timely importance. so it is with days of destruction, days of revolt.

the decline of america is a story of gross injustices, declining standards of living, stagnant or

...more chris hedges's writing and reportage is consistently trenchant and unequivocal, notable for its discerning examinations and penetrating insights. joe sacco's award-winning work as a cartoonist is as distinctive as it is compassionate. combining the immense talents of these two men can only result in a devastating, powerful book of timely importance. so it is with days of destruction, days of revolt.

the decline of america is a story of gross injustices, declining standards of living, stagnant or falling wages, long-term unemployment and underemployment, and the curtailment of basic liberties, especially as we militarize our police. it is a story of the weakest forever being crushed by the strong. it is the story of unchecked and unfettered corporate power, which has taken our government hostage, overseen the dismantling of our manufacturing base, bankrupted the nation, and plundered and contaminated our natural resources.

two years ago, hedges and sacco set out to visit areas of the united states that have long been the victims of varying forms of exploitation, neglect, and degradation. the common thread shared by these forlorn locales is that each, in its own way, has served as the sacrificial setting (with individuals, families, once-enduring ways of life, and the environment as the sacrificed) to the insatiable appetites of corporate profit and greed. their book recounts the time they spent in these places, ably portraying the stories of not only the locations themselves and their sorrowful declines, but also the inhabitants and citizens that have long borne witness and suffered (and continue to do so) the abuses they are all but powerless to combat.

the four "sacrifice zones" that hedges and sacco immersed themselves within are the pine ridge reservation in south dakota (with the lowest life expectancy for males [48] anywhere in the western world save for haiti), camden, new jersey (a once flourishing industrial center that is now home to the highest poverty rate per capita in the united states), southern west virginia, where coal companies, via the abhorrent practice of mountaintop removal, have laid waste to the landscape and befouled air, soil, and water, further endangering the lives of an already impoverished class of once-proud rural miners, and finally immokalee, florida where migrant agricultural workers (many undocumented) are forced to work in dangerous, deplorable conditions that "replicate slavery." while each of these four settings is beset by their own unique array of circumstances and challenges, they share a commonality in that they have all been preyed upon by the forces of an unrestrained capitalism whose only goals are ever greater profits and the relentless conversion of resources (be they fossil fuels or people) into aggregated wealth. the individuals that hedges and sacco met with, while each marginalized, neglected, and exploited in their own way, represent far more than the destitute and bereft- they are vassals in the neofeudalistic system that enrich the corporate elite at the expense of everyone and everything else.

as societies become more complex they inevitable become more precarious and vulnerable. as they begin to break down, the terrified and confused population withdraws from reality, unable to acknowledge their fragility and impending collapse. the elites retreat into isolated compounds, whether at versailles, the forbidden city, or modern palatial estates. they indulge in unchecked hedonism, the accumulation of wealth, and extravagant consumption. the suffering masses are repressed with greater and greater ferocity. resources are depleted until they are exhausted. and then the hollowed-out edifice collapses. the roman and sumerian empires fell this way. the mayan elite became, at the end, as the anthropologist ronald wright notes in a short history of progress, "...extremists, or ultraconservatives, squeezing the last drops of profit from nature and humanity." this is how all civilizations, including our own, ossify and collapse.

as hedges and sacco were nearing completion of their book, a group consisting of a few hundred activists in a lower manhattan park "unwittingly triggered a global movement of resistance that would reverberate across the country and the capitals of europe." occupy wall street took aim at corporate greed, corruption, cronyism, and the undue influence corporations have over democracy. as an antipode to the impotence found in the desolated regions they visited earlier, zuccotti park represented a vitality and intensity that offered a differing account to the one proffered by the monolithic corporate media. as they had done elsewhere, hedges and sacco listened, interviewed and reported upon the burgeoning movement as it grew from its infancy. whereas hope had been but an abstraction in camden, pine ridge, immokalee, and west virginia, in new york city they witnessed collective aspirations amounting to a clarion call for restorative justice.

days of destruction, days of revolt is an often unsettling, upsetting book. the clarity and empathy with which chris hedges and joe sacco crafted this book is colored by its unyielding potency. their work serves as a steadfast documentary on the calamitous effects of allowing plutocratic rule to proliferate. as we observe the increasing criminalization of dissent, growing disparity of wealth, and rapidly advancing debasement of the ecosystems upon which we depend for survival, a new narrative is taking form. with their book, hedges and sacco have made a laudable effort in so eloquently contrasting these opposing forces. days of destruction, days of revolt is a blistering indictment of unfettered capitalism, a lament for the inhumane and callous treatment of those it deems expendable, and, perhaps most importantly, a rousing portrait of what our future may look like if it is permitted to endure.

the devastation of pine ridge, in camden, in southern west virginia, and in the florida produce fields has worked its way upward. the corporate leviathan has migrated with the steady and ominous thud of destruction from the outer sacrifice zones to devour what remains. the vaunted american dream, the idea that life will get better, that progress is inevitable if we obey the rules and work hard, that material prosperity is assured, has been replaced by a hard and bitter truth. the american dream, we now know, is a lie. we will all be sacrificed. the virus of corporate abuse- the perverted belief that only corporate profit matters- has spread to outsource out jobs, cut the budgets of our schools, close our libraries, and plague our communities with foreclosures and unemployment. this virus has brought with it a security and surveillance state that seeks to keep us all on a reservation. no one is immune. the suffering of the other, of the native american, the african american in the inner city, the unemployed coal miner, or the hispanic produce picker is universal. they went first. we are next. the indifference we showed to the plight of the underclass, in biblical terms our 'neighbor,' haunts us. we failed them, and in doing so we failed ourselves. we were accomplices in our own demise. revolt is all we have left. it is the only hope.

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Nov 14, 2012 Adam rated it 4 of 5 stars

I can't say I "enjoyed" this book, because there is no joy in many of the stories here. This is about American tragedy: tragedy on the reservation, tragedy in the 'hood, tragedy in the coal fields and tragedy on the tomato farms. There is a small glimpse of hope in the end, with the Occupy movement, but it is only a small hope and not an easy hope. Hedges is rather clear that if conditions will change, it will be up to us.

The main reason why I think this is an excellent book is because it is wri...more

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Aug 29, 2012 H Wesselius rated it 5 of 5 stars

Chris Hedges along with Joe Sacco set out to describe and analyze four areas of America that have been sacrificed to the corporate machine. Culture, urban neighborhoods, the environment and people are all sacrificed in the pursuit of profit. With righteous anger, Hedges does a great job of describing the external or common costs to create private profit. The drawings and graphic format make the description even more real and give the reader a ready connection to the situation.

The only disappoint...more

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Jan 01, 2013 Sara rated it 3 of 5 stars

A great book to wrap up this years book club, unknowningly it intertwined so many of the books we read this past year. Chapter 4 discussed Imoakalee, Florida and the migrant camps that plank that area. It discussed the modern day slavery and reflected back on the modernization of Florida's frontier. Bringing thoughts of our first book Swamplandia which touched on a mystical story of an alligator carnival in the Everglades that was admonished by the modernization of our theme parked world. Chapte...more

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Mar 26, 2013 Tina Siegel rated it 4 of 5 stars

Really loved this. Smart and thorough and unsparaing. Hard to read, at points, but that's the point. Confronting the horror of our own economic and political decisions should be hard, and that's what Hedges and Sacco are forcing us to do with this book. It's unbelievably effective and affecting because (for the most part) they let people from what they call 'sacrifice zones' tell their own stories - its capitalism's most horrifying sins exposed. And they are horrifying.

I think Hedges and Sacco g...more

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Jun 26, 2012 Mike Dawson rated it 3 of 5 stars

The main profiles were informative and shocking. A lot of new information on groups of people I don't read a lot about.

Throughout the book, the author's frequent editorializing rubbed me the wrong way. I understand that the book is essentially a propaganda tool, but the author's voice and opinions often felt shoehorned in. In many instances, he would follow up a quote from an interview subject with an editorial opinion of his own, sometimes blurring your sense of who's thoughts are who's.

The fin...more

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Dec 07, 2012 April rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: comics, nonfiction

Through text and illustration, Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco undertake the important task of exposing how corporate America's dominance over human lives creates and perpetuates an unbreakable cycle of exploitation, poverty, and despair for all American society especially those living in "sacrifice zones" - Lakota Indians of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota; destitute city dwellers of decimated and corrupt Camden, NJ; poisoned, broken, and forgotten coal miners and their families of West V...more

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Oct 21, 2012 Susan Cox rated it 4 of 5 stars

First of all, a word about the format -- Hedges and Sacco tell the stories of some of the most impoverished areas in the United States. Sacco's graphic-novel-styled illustrations are unique, disturbing, and insightful, powerful demonstrations of the challenges that the individuals depicted have faced.

Hedges' text, I admit, is inflammatory and harsh in its criticism of the powers that be and of their neglect of the poorest in our nation. He spares no one, least of all himself, in pointing out how...more

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Jul 16, 2012 Kenneth E. Harrison, Jr. rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: cultural-studies-and-social-critics

In turns devastating, cogent, and necessary, Chris Hedges' Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt (with excellent illustrations and story-telling by Joe Sacco) visits several "sacrifice zones" in the U.S.--Pine Ridge; Camden, New Jersey; Welch, West Virginia; and Immokalee, Florida--to evaluate the effects of capitalism on particular areas of the country. For Hedges, it is a return to sharp, straight journalism but not without convincing analysis of the human and environmental toll in the corporate...more In turns devastating, cogent, and necessary, Chris Hedges' Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt (with excellent illustrations and story-telling by Joe Sacco) visits several "sacrifice zones" in the U.S.--Pine Ridge; Camden, New Jersey; Welch, West Virginia; and Immokalee, Florida--to evaluate the effects of capitalism on particular areas of the country. For Hedges, it is a return to sharp, straight journalism but not without convincing analysis of the human and environmental toll in the corporate state. The injustice dealt to American Indians, for example, leads Hedges to some extraordinary insights:

The old conflict between Indians and Euro-Americans, between colonizers and colonized, between masters and serfs, is the template for the last act of the corporate state. The tyranny we imposed on others is now being imposed upon us. We too are wage slaves. We, too, no longer know how to sustain ourselves. We, too, do not grow our own food or make our own clothes. We are as dependent on the state as the Indians who were herded into the agencies and stripped of their self-sufficiency. Once trapped on reservations, once the buffalo herds no longer existed, once Indians could no longer move in bands to gather wild potatoes, wild turnips, berries, medicines, and cottonwood bark for their horses in the middle of winter, once they could no longer hunt in different places to prevent exhausting the game supply, they became what most of us have become--prisoners.

On post-industrial Camden, New Jersey:

The decline of America is a story of gross injustices, declining standards of living, stagnant, and falling wages, long-term unemployment and under-employment, and the curtailment of basic liberties, especially as we militarize our police. It is the story of the weakest forever being crushed by the strong. It is the story of unchecked and unfettered corporate power, which has taken our government hostage, overseen the dismantling of our manufacturing base, bankrupted the nation, and plundered and contaminated our natural resources. Once communities break down physically, they break down morally.

It may be, however, the stories of the people weathering such effects that are most valuable here. The people we meet are given through Hedges' writing full voice--and Sacco's cartoons create another layer to the re-humanizing of the oft-dehumanized.

Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt ends in Liberty Square in Zuccotti Park during, and shortly after, Occupy Wall Street's protests--and Hedges' writing becomes more hopeful (though not unrealistic or too idealistic):

And in their [those who resist] search they come to the conclusion that, as Socrates said, it is better to suffer wrong than to do wrong. This conclusion makes a leap into the moral. It refuses to place a monetary value on human life. It acknowledges human life, indeed all human life, as sacred. And this is why, as Hannah Arendt points out, the only morally reliable people are not those who say "this is wrong" or "this should not be done," but those who say "I can't".

Highly recommended.

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Oct 18, 2012 Conor Mcvarnock rated it 5 of 5 stars

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...more 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.(less)

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Jul 25, 2012 Emelda rated it 4 of 5 stars

The first four chapters- examining Pine Ridge Reservation; Camden, New Jersey; Welch, West Virginia; and Immokalee, Florida- are fascinating and heartbreaking. The last chapter- chronicling the beginnings of the Occupy movement- was a bit of a let down, truth be told. It made the book ultimately feel like it was for a different audience, or that the last chapter stuck out like a sore thumb. Maybe I'm just sick of reading White Activists' theories and actions. The pockets of resistance in the pr...more

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Apr 01, 2013 Jim rated it 3 of 5 stars

Would have rated it 4 stars but the last chapter was a little preachy. The accounts in all the previous chapters were excellent, and the voices of the people involved did a great job of getting the point of the book across. However, in the last chapter one of the authors got on his soapbox and started preaching about revolution and basically implying that it was the solution to all the problems of the people in the book. There are likely to exist effective answers short of revolution, and revolu...more

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