Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt

by Chris Hedges, Joe Sacco

With illustrations by award-winning comic artist Joe Sacco, Chris Hedges portrays a suffering nation on the cusp of widespread revolt and addresses Occupy Wall Street in his first book since the international protests began.
 
In the tradition of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, Hedges and Sacco travel to the depressed pockets of the United States to report on recession-era America. What they find in Camden, New Jersey, the devastated coalmines of West Virginia, on the Lakota reservation in South Dakota, and in undocumented farmworker colonies in California is a thriving neofeudalism. With extraordinary on-the-ground reportage and illustration, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt provides a terrifying glimpse of a future for America and the nations that follow her lead--a future that will be avoided with nothing short of revolution. 

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Graphic Novels, History, Comics, Economics, Sociology

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Christopher Lynn Hedges is an American journalist, author, and war correspondent, specializing in American and Middle Eastern politics and societies.

Hedges is known as the best-selling author of War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (2002), which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction.

Chris Hedges is currently a senior fellow at The Nation Institute in New York City.

Reviews

[Hannah Azerang · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most difficult yet most important book I have ever read.

[Mia · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 depressing books or articles I usually read about politics and poverty in the US - this book actually moved me to action. Since I began reading this book - I have switched my electricity bill (PECO) to the 100% wind/solar option and joined a CSA.

Read it now.

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

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 not 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 human values. Repeat until last chapter. The last chapter is mess. Hedges praises the revolutions of East Europe from the last century and spends a quick paragraph mentioning the revolutions that didn't work. No resaon why they didn't work. He is smitten with the Occupy movement but there's no real criticism to balance it out.

It's a lot of complaining about how bad theings are and very little on how to change them. We hear about the Fair Food Agreement, but otherwise it's a lot of theorizing about revolution and change. Even the Occupy part is more about reportage that what work they are doing.

[Trish · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book left me feeling depressed and bereft for a number of days. I wonder if anyone has ever been so bald before in revealing America’s most heinous errors of judgment and fairness. In the Introduction, Hedges writes that Sacco and he started out to look closely at the “sacrifice zones” in parts of America that have been areas of exploitation and neglect. It is horrifying, but necessary information.

This book is a collaboration between two highly talented individuals who separately have achieved international reputations for looking at how we live, how we resolve conflict, and how the system seems to develop “forgotten areas” where human rights are not as they were promised, and are not what many of us enjoy.

They start with the Indians, American Indians. Just saying the name already develops in us a sense of wariness. We’ve heard…but these men stare. They investigate. They conclude. The conditions of their survival are completely heartbreaking. We do more for bison than we do for native Americans, and I am not talking about government “handouts.” I have long thought that these folks should be dukes and duchesses in the supposedly classless American society instead of reviled and degraded, and reading the report of these two men makes me even more sure that we can hardly right the wrongs without changing something fundamental in our thinking.

The book has five parts. In four of those parts, Hedges and Sacco look at different areas of the country, but also areas of our discriminatory behaviors…places like Camden, New Jersey “left for dead” while others areas of the country carry on with growth and abundance. It is disgusting to read about, and even more disgusting to realize no one can really talk this away by blaming it on the folks that are suffering. These are national problems.

Sacco’s work as a graphic artist is brilliant and unforgettable. You may remember his work from several books on the Middle East (Palestine, Footnotes in Gaza) or his work on Yugoslavia (Safe Area Goražde: The War in Eastern Bosnia, 1992-1995, or War's End: Profiles from Bosnia, 1995-1996). He literally illustrates the lives people lead in these crisis areas and dares us to turn away. What he chooses to draw in these chapters is clearly clipped from reality. If a picture is worth a thousand words, he has written an opus.

This book is an unusual collaboration that reads like a gut-punch. The last chapter talks about Occupy Wall Street, how it began, how it spread, what it means. The occupation in Zuccotti Park began during the last months of the writing of this book, and in Hedges’ words, “permitted us to end our work with the capacity for hope.” Perhaps so. For weeks I could not see or hear of indignities in our daily life without thinking of this book. It is instructive, and truly horrifying. Should definitely go on high school reading lists, but really we should all read this.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very devastating book to read.

[Blane · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 order to keep us down. If they can keep us distracted with reality tv, celebrity gossip, and similar drivel - we won't notice what they're up to. It's worked for them so far.

"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 our 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 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."

[Paltia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A huge thank you to keen reader for suggesting this book. Nearly shocking in it’s vivid truth. One feels disgust, rage and sadness while and after reading. There’s only been a few books that present such a devastating aftermath of greed. There are terrible scars including addiction, demoralization, joblessness, all among the polluted rivers, sterile land, and abandoned company and factory towns. Where does this lead us? Is there anyone out there with an optimistic prophecy? Signing off as indignant.

[Julian Worker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a superb book, a mixture of investigative journalism and graphic novel, looking at some of the areas in the United States of America where human beings and mother nature have been exploited for profit by the forces of capitalism and then discarded into the dirt.

The book shows why rules and regulations need to be set by national government and that the companies in The Market will never be self-regulating as their only concern is to maximise profit. The book is quite shocking at times and gives another view of the USA that few, if any, authors would dare bring into the light.

[jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Michael Scott · Rating 1 out of 5]

(Disclaimer: I am not a fan of Joe Sacco, because I find his graphical journalism rather biased, but I think he offers in many cases an interesting and well-documented perspective. This is why I have decided to read all his graphical novels.)

Days of Destruction Days of Revolt is a mixed-media book, which includes classic investigative journalism---albeit written tabloid-style---and Joe Sacco-style graphical journalism. The topic: the depreciation of living conditions for a vast majority of the American society. The thesis: that the living conditions have depreciated to the point of exploitation, slavery, and deprivation. Important topic, good thesis for a debate. However, I strongly disliked this book and would strongly recommend that you read any other work of Joe Sacco instead.

The book has five main parts: Days of Theft covers the situation of Native Americans, the theft being the violent misappropriation of their lands by the US government (completed around 1850); Days of Siege describes the dirt-poor village of Camden, New Jersey, where the siege represents the population lacking job opportunities; Days of Devastation presents mining companies, where the devastation is the loss of natural biomass due to wide-scale and polluting excavation; Days of Slavery investigates the situation of migrant agricultural workers, where slavery is the result of modern peonage practices (e.g., charging disproportionately high and monopolistic prices for providing food for the workers, chaining workers so they could not leave the work encampment, etc.); and Days of Revolt in part introduces the Occupy Wall Street movement.

There was little on the positive side of reading this material. I liked the parts on Days of Devastation and Days of Slavery, in particular the latter. They present interesting, albeit not particularly new or unbiased, investigative journalism. The idea of "death of the American Dream", that is, that the American Dream seems to be more a Ponzi (pyramidal) scheme, is fruitful for this book, albeit the material supporting this direction is also not novel in any sense.

On the negative side ... This was the weakest book I've read from Sacco, incomparably weaker than the books dedicated to modern ethnic conflicts (e.g., Bosnia, Palestine). The main drawbacks are, for me, the poor mix between the two used media; the little space use of what I consider Joe Sacco's main strengths (setting the context, visualizing the situation and main features, creating a continuous story through near-movie storytelling); the tendentious, aggressive treatment of the topics; the relatively little novelty; the list goes on.

Also negative: The topics are addressed from a Leninist perspective: capitalism is bad, the American approach to it is worse, rich people enslave the remainder of the population. Mikhail Bakunin is also mentioned as a good example---simplifying, he is known to history as a violent anarchist---. There is little but anecdotal evidence, and anecdotal evidence is treated subjectively---we only hear one self-serving side of the story, that of the "oppressed". The parts on Pine Ridge (theft), Camden (siege), and Liberty Square (revolt) cannot be well addressed in the current legal and ethical frameworks that I am aware of; it certainly does not help that the material for these parts is outrageously biased.

... and also negative: I was offended the authors trying to hijack various anti-Communist revolutions (Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, East Germany, etc.) to their own purposes. The conditions, actions, entire context were extremely different; for example, the people discussed in this book are free to move or have chosen to work in the US. That the world is not offering them a better alternative is a discussion worth having but not mentioned in Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt ...

To conclude: a bad piece of tabloid journalism. There is much better material on the topic and on the proposed thesis. There is also much better material from Joe Sacco.

[Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

"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.

[Curtis · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Kaelan Ratcliffe ▪ كايِلان راتكِليف · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to share a bizarre story that occurred around the reading of this book.

Being from London England means Hedges books aren't readily available from bookstores (I saw his latest work America: The Farewell Tour in Foyles bookstore on Tottenham Court Road once; that's it) and the reality is second hand websites or overseas shipping by request to a UK bookstore are the answer to the desire to purchase his work. It should be mentioned that if Hedges isn't mainstream in the US then he really isn't here in the UK. He's not massively well known here at all (a shame).

With regards to this book, I have actually read a number of Hedges other work and decided to plow into this next one by purchasing it online around mid-2019. After quite some time the book didn't arrive and I was refunded. These American published books take a while to arrive and usually I have to build the enthusiasm to make the purchase considering the high price and shipping costs, so I moved onto other books and lost the imperative to dig into another project Hedges undertook. I'll admit this was the one book I'd heard really good stuff about and I'd wanted to read it for a while.

Fast forward to Summer 2020, just after the first Covid19 lockdown had ended in UK and I'm visiting the Midlands in the Lake District with some other people. We're staying up in quiet village in Sedbergh in what really was the middle of nowhere for a couple of days. About a day into our stay, I'm walking with someone down a street and we pass a small converted bus shelter that's now housing a food collection box, and a very small library of the towns used books in a window case on the shelter wall (overwhelmingly rubbish fiction and local geography / map books). I have a habit of always keeping an eye on any secondhand bookstores of any denomination as I've found some gems in unlikely places. This was no exception, so I decided to scan the books for anything interesting.

Well, I'm thinking you've guessed what I found. But let me just preemptively explain how insane it was that I found Days of Destruction Days of Revolt, a book about the worse affected areas of the US by unfettered capitalism, in an unassuming farm village in the Midlands of the UK (as if that's not absurd enough). This book was utterly alone amongst garbage fiction, tucked away top left of the shelf by someone; almost too easy to miss. It was a hardback first edition with its cover jacket in pretty good condition also. Furthermore, this was written in 2012 (so no excuse of being a 'new book' in circulation) fully eight years ago, by someone not very well known even in the US let alone the UK. The chances of finding this book - a book I'd recently mentioned to the person I was walking with that I'd wished I had gotten the chance to read not long prior - were just stupidly astronomical. So much so I stood there holding it in a kind of stupor for about fifteen seconds before showing the person I was walking with what I'd found (they were equally dumbfounded).

If this had been some other book this might have seemed a slight overreaction. Even if I'd found this in a London charity bookstore (which would still be rare) I would've held back from typing this all out. But the fact that all the above mentioned set of circumstances led to me finding this book is, frankly, borderline freaky. I'd encourage anyone to type in Sedbergh, UK into Google maps to see how out of town it is; its practically nestled between a bunch of hills and mountains.

I would've be excited to know there was a left leaning Hedges reader in the remote town of Sedbergh (maybe this would be where the revolution would start in the UK, right?) if the inside of the book wasn't annotated by the previous reader (clearly the one who dropped the book in the bus shelter) criticising every page in the book. It definitely added to the flavour of the whole event, and my favourite annotation was at the end of the chapter 'Days of Siege' in which Hedges quotes a poem he left on the tomb of the author who wrote said poem in Camdem (US, not London Camden).

Hedges leaves a poem quote to end the chapter, and written by the previous reader - in quite beautiful handwriting - in pencil next to the poem quote was: The Narcissistic and the Anecdotal.

Yanked me right out of the harrowing chapter on US poverty right into the previous British readers clear distaste for anything melodramatic or poetic. Beautiful.

As for the book? Along with America: The Farwell Tour, this book is definitely Hedges strongest work. Harrowing and beautiful, Joe Saccos artwork makes it even more riveting to read also.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 title and much of the puffery of the final chapter ("Revolt is all we have left. It is the only hope.") imply heavily that the indignities and counterattacks it presents are current, are new, are coming to an unprecedented head. But most of the meaty chapters know that's not true. They acknowledge history: for reservation natives, inner-city minorities, rural coal miners, and migrant farmworkers, life has been real shitty for a real long time.

I've got nothing against deeply-held argument. But it's really stunning how, after 200+ pages of what sure feels like scrupulous concern for actual flesh-and-blood humans, things suddenly shift to apocalyptic statements with no real argument behind them. That often vast underclasses have been horrifically oppressed through American (& world!) history is shameful, but you can't jump straight from there to "We have to create monastic enclaves." I mean, there's an argument there, but you have to, y'know, make it.

And then: "We seemed to have lost, at least until the advent of the Occupy Wall Street movement, not only all personal responsibility but all capacity for personal judgment." When I read a sentence so utterly, almost evilly, clueless -- so indifferent to the daily moral struggles and victories that little-o occupy most lives -- it's hard not to think that what felt like empathy and understanding in the preceding pages was a lie. Or maybe I can just attribute the good parts to Sacco. Yeah.

[Karyl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will read anything that Joe Sacco publishes. His books are never an easy read, dealing with war and its aftermath, but his books shine light on places that those in power would prefer you to forget.

This book is no different, though reading it six years after it was published makes it seem even more bleak. Hedges starts out in Pine Ridge, a reservation located in South Dakota. Here the occupants experience extremely high unemployment rates, and many choose to stay drunk much of the time. Hedges makes sure we understand why the Native Americans have gotten to this low place, that time and again the US government made promises they had no intentions of keeping, and the lack of any kind of hope causes a great deal of inertia for these folks.

From there we head to Camden, NJ, a town that has died over the last thirty years and is home to nothing more than gang violence and drug deals. Then it's off to West Virginia, where coal companies are killing mountain tops to get to the coal, and the residents have high incidences of cancers and other diseases caused by contaminated water and the dust that the mining kicks up into the air. Finally we see how undocumented workers in Florida are harvesting our produce in conditions that are uncomfortably similar to what African-American slaves endured before the Emancipation Proclamation. In each segment, Joe Sacco illustrates one person's story to bring it to vivid life for the readers.

The last chapter, however, with the discussion on the Occupy movement, is where Hedges lost me a bit. Perhaps it's the distance of six years from the publication of this book, or perhaps it's because our nation has gotten so much worse since the election of 2016. But a velvet revolution to overthrow our corporate overlords seems very unlikely, and as frustrating as it may be, the best chance of change seems to be our young people. The high school kids who protested after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in February of 2018, who then convinced so many young folks across the nation to walk out in solidarity and to ask for some sort of common-sense gun control -- these are the people who are going to make a difference. Reading the chapter on the Occupy movement at this late date seems like reading about a Utopian dream that has no basis in the reality that is 2018. It's amazing how quickly the world has changed.

Even still, I highly recommend this book, and I would hope everyone would read this. It's that important.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt brings to light so-called "sacrifice zones," communities and ecosystems that have been exploited in the name of profit and progress.

The book is divided into five sections...

DAYS OF THEFT: Provides a high-level overview of how the United States government deceived and decimated Native Americans, and the extent of poverty, violence, and addiction that permeates reservations communities. The brief narrative history details the countless treaties our government agreed to and later reneged, including the Fort Laramie Treaty, which designated the Black Hills as "unceded Indian Territory" for the exclusive use of native peoples, that is until gold was discovered and the boundaries drastically redrawn.

DAYS OF SEIGE: Illustrates what happens to promising American cities built and reliant on manufacturing once every penny of profit is squeezed out of moving jobs overseas. In this case, Camden, New Jersey, the birthplace of Campbell's Soup and RCA electronics, once a manufacturing giant due to its riverfront access and proximity to Philadelphia and New York City, today an industrial ghost town with some of the highest poverty, crime, and highschool dropout rates in the nation.

DAYS OF DEVASTATION: Shines a spotlight on the impact of mountain top removal on rural communities, where underground mining by coal companies release high toxicity heavy metals into the environment, killing off wildlife and destroying the air, water, and livelihoods of those who've called rural West Virginia home for generations.

DAYS OF SLAVERY: Aside from Days of Devastation, one of the most powerful and devastating portraits of exploitation in this book. It transports us to the tomato fields Immokalee, Florida, considered ground zero for modern day slavery.

"[A]ny American who has eaten a winter tomato, either purchased at a supermarket or on top of a fast food salad, has eaten a fruit picked by the hand of a slave... That’s not an assumption. That’s a fact." -U.S. Attorney Douglas Molloy

On the fields of Immokalee, which sell tomatoes to the nation's leading grocery chains and fast food restaurants, there's no job protection, no health benefits, no overtime pay. Growers flagrantly disregard requirements not to spray pesticides while workers are picking in the fields. Undocumented workers, because of their lack of legal status, often inability to communicate in English, economic hardship, and fear of deportation are particularly prone to abuse. Many are in a cycle of debt peonage on the scale of indentured servitude, having incurred a debt to come to America in search of a better life, and many leaving or dying having been unable to pay it off. In Immokalee, it was not uncommon for day laborers ofto sleep 10 to a trailer because of its proximity to the worksite in hopes of being handpicked for another day's work, or for female laborers to be sexually assaulted or else lose their meager wages. This chapter makes me never want to eat another tomato I didn't grow on my own. Devastating.

DAYS OF REVOLT: Haphazardly covers the Occupy Wall Street movement. Of all the chapters, this one felt cobbled together with far more opinion than fact. However, what was striking was its description of civil disobedience and how cumbersome peaceful protests have become in the name of law and order, with some cities requiring permits, liability coverage, and registration of signage and sound equipment.

Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt is a powerful read, but it was also a pretty big letdown. Chris Hedges is clearly a smart guy, but he severely lacks balance. Several times in the course of reading this I thought "heavy on problems, light on solutions," and for investigative journalism, that's often passable. However, Hedges doesn't say away from infusing his journalism with his opinion. On top of pointed terminology like "corporate overlords" and "calcified elites," he'll say things like, "Welcome to the revolution. The elites have exposed their hand. They have shown they have nothing to offer. They can destroy but they cannot build. They can repress but they cannot lead. They can steal but they cannot share... They have no ideas, no plans, and no vision for the future."

Maybe it's just me, but if you're going to break the plane if journalism and write an opinion column, you could put forward a few recommendations on how to (pardon my language) unfuck our situation. What few recommendations he did offer won't convince the critical mass needed for the changes desired. For instance, promoting civil disobedience, lessening reliance on fossil fuels, being cognizant of our own consumerism - these are reasonable. But Hedges is an all or nothing guy. He wants full-scale revolution and puts forward that we must "defy all formal systems of power" and abandon institutions that only beget incremental progress.

3.25 out of 5

[Luka Malatestinic · Rating 5 out of 5]

The conclusion of this book is supposed to be positive but it definitely brought me noticeably closer to suicide than I was beforehand

[Merrikay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hedges and Sacco examine colonialism in the United States by actively investigating communities of Native Americans both on and off reservations, poverty stricken neighborhoods (reservations) in Camden, New Jersey, mining areas in West Virginia, and current day slavery in Immokalee, Florida (which Senator Bernie Sanders calls the bottom in the race to the bottom).  Each separate section on these places and topics include history and facts of colonial takeover laid out very clearly and logically.  The authors have managed to make institutional racism and discrimination, something that many people struggle with understanding or believing, very clear.  That is quite a feat.

Each section is also illustrated with personal stories of local individuals, families or groups with detailed stories of their struggles.  This makes this one of those educational books that read so well you can't put it down.  Although I DID put it down between sections that were so self-contained I could get the complete idea, theory and real stories in one sitting and then let the information percolate for awhile before I went on to the next section.  The authors draw clear connections to illustrate how and why people make some of the choices that look destructive from the outside, such as why we take our rage out on each other, burning our own communities, etc.

I am American so it is especially eye-opening to see these terms such as colonialism applied to myself as a colonized person.  No matter how much I read, learn, study and come to understand and believe these ideas, I am still sometimes surprised to hear this language applied to the U.S.   It is so much easier to think in terms of the other while I am, e.g., reading about Palestine and -you know - OTHERS!

This book  is hard hitting and depressing, but does not leave the reader there. The closing section is about the Occupy movement, its history, founders, possibilities for the future and to NOT coin a phrase, "Being the change".  This history of Occupy has not received a lot of media attention so many think it was simply very spontaneous and unorganized, although before the physical occupation began, well trained teams were already in place to provide legal services, security at the park, medical services and food as well as the famous library and educational team.  These are people who know revolution, how it has worked historically, and are full of creative ideas such as my personal favorite movement, Strike Debt.  The media kept saying Occupiers were simply a bunch of homeless addicts going nowhere and accomplishing nothing.  And yes of course there were plenty of homeless and addicts.  The beautiful difference is how they were included and cared for rather than ostracized.  The media kept asking all the wrong questions of Occupy - who are your leaders and what are your demands.  You'll also develop an understanding of those issues before you finish the book.  AND.....you will  finish it quickly - it is a fast and easy read and still covers all of this!  Amazing accomplishment! Five stars and highly recommended.

If you can't tell, I really really love this book and it is going on my Best of 2013 list.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 corporations and left now as ghost town..likewise for many other cities where are in steep decline in living standards.. iii) Environmental destruction of the coal mind developments for the past 80 years in Welch, WV..complete pollution to cause environmental carnage with highest rate of cancer, kidney stones, black lungs..the vanish of the blue collar mine workers with no compensation, yet WV mountains have been destroyed and left in ruin..iv) our modern day sweat shop that are situated right in US homeland: tomato farmers, raspberry farmers, citrus, cucumbers, etc who are largely composed of south Americans: Guatelmalans, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, etc..whom they are paid very little on toxic farmlands for major corporations: Walmart, Supermarkets...(modern day Foxconn, Starbucks, Gap, AF, etc)...we praised and thirst for cheap products but often unaware of the populations that are enduring daily sufferings and workers' abuse and environmental hazards which created by evil corporations..authors vividly describing the sadness and outcry of our proud multi-culture, blue collar ordinary citizens as well as our Native owners of this land: the Indians..genuine book to make one thinks further to purchase another cup of Starbuck coffee, fresh tomato, Florida orange, etc..how much and how far will we look deep further on the destruction we created..in America..and for the rest of the world..must read..

[Veganpike · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 same issues in different forms, Hedges will always be held back by his singular experience as a straight, white, cisgendered, able-bodied American man. Even though I largely agree with his perspectives on most of the issues raised throughout the book, the regular diatribes that derail the narrative make it hard to read without feeling both patronized and proselytized. It's not the kind of book that I could recommend to, say, ANYONE who wasn't already a radical leftist because he doesn't give the reader enough credit to let us put the pieces together ourselves. And for those of us who are already radical leftists, well... the oversimplicity with which he lays out the problems is kind of insulting.

In spite of all of these criticisms, I still went through this book very quickly and do not regret it at all. I feel like I've been given a peek into the lives and feelings of a few people I would not have otherwise gotten to know, and that is worth a lot. Joe Sacco's illustrations help make the book feel more alive, though I found his choice of what to draw a bit boring at times. If you want to have a better understanding of what is happening for a lot of US Americans on ground zero of the global financial meltdown and the many years of neoliberal policy that helped fuel it, read this book. It helps to put (many) human faces to a level of destitution many of us understand in theory but have been lucky enough to avoid ourselves. So far.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 the reader. Instead, he indulges in emotionalism and hyperbolic conclusions unsupported by the text (does he really think six billion people should become hunter-gatherers and subsistence farmers?) which undermine the force of his reporting. Hedges wants to turn this reporting into a polemic, but he doesn't make the arguments that would bring the reader to his conclusions.

In the last chapter, about Occupy Wall St., reporting is reduced to caricature; Occupiers are all heroes, and Bankers and their lackeys are all villains. "It is always the respectable classes, the polished Ivy League graduates, the prep school boys and girls who grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut, or Short Hills, New Jersey, who are the most susceptible to evil." Really? Because the evils detailed in the other chapters of the book are not being perpetrated by people from Greenwich and Short Hills. Could it be perhaps something a little more banal, that money and power tend to corrupt? Corporations, like state bureaucracies and armies, enable people to do more damage by letting them hide behind the notion that they are just following orders, but the problem is ultimately one of morality. How do we best remoralize society? This is unclear, but I don't think retreating to monasteries, as Hedges advocates, is the answer.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Second nonfiction I have read recently that has evoked Dante’s inferno for me. Sacco and Hedges takes the reader on a tour of our sacrifice zones. Areas that capitalism and other forces (racism and classism mainly) have made into third world failed states that exist in the borders of the world’s number one economy. Pine Ridge reservation, Camden, New Jersey, West Virginia Coal country, the produce fields of Florida, and finally the Occupy protests. These pieces are intended as both prophesy of unfettered capitalism and a shaming for our collective turning of the back. In other words this is muckraking piece in the classic style. There is a tension between Hedge’s manic street preacher of doom delivering an erudite and passionate sermon that critiques history and safely held preconceptions with Sacco’s more humane and thoughtful portrayals. This tension gives way in the last and weakest section on the Occupy movement as Hedges turns most of the piece into a plea for revolution (without any really answers though many of his critiques seem trenchant) which makes it the weakest section, as good reportage on the Occupy movement is needed more than his rant.

[Rita_book · Rating 5 out of 5]

This powerful book is a stark, sometimes overwhelming chronicle of some of the poorest and destitute areas of our country. From South Dakota to New Jersey to West Virginia to Florida, Hedges reports on the injustices perpetrated on our poorest, least powerful citizens by greedy corporations and corrupt officials. At first his final chapter, about Occupy Wall Street, did not seem to fit with the other sections. However, Hedges finishes his book with an impassioned appeal and call to action, and ties together all of the previous accounts with the theme of the Occupy movement (banding together to fight for basic rights for all people). Sacco's graphic-novel illustrations serve to support the text and provide an additional view of the individuals interviewed by Hedges. I highly recommend this grim but enlightening book--one of my favorites of the year.

[Meghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Devastating rhetoric and searing illustrations by Joe Sacco. This pulls together the devastation faced by different communities in America in four different compelling and specific stories about Native Americans in South Dakota, coal miners in West Virginia, African Americans in a blighted part of New Jersey, and immigrant farm workers in Florida. The connections between these stories become really clear, although the final story about the Occupy movement is maybe a little naïve. Still, incredibly moving.

[Armand Emamdjomeh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Incredibly preachy at points, wish there was more from Sacco.

[Darcy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The main downside to being a Chris Hedges reader is that you know going in you'll probably not leave the book feeling better about the state of the world. He is a master of drawing out misery and suffering and exposing it to the reader for better or worse. This book covers much of the impoverished people living across America, and the corporate powers that ensure these vulnerable lives are ground into dust.

The book is broken up into a few sections following different sections of people which can make it a bit disjointed. There's an overarching theme of course, but for me it didn't feel as cohesive as some of the past works I've read. I've seen some readers call this "poverty porn" and it's hard to disagree. But I feel like the intent is to make the reader uncomfortable and upset. How should we feel living in a society that is allowing these things to happen? Modern slavery in the farmer's fields of Florida, wholesale destruction of the planet in West Virginia coal mining.

Where the book really feels dated by today's standards is the focus on the Occupy movement. Obviously at the time Hedges felt very inspired by the protestors in New York and goes to great lengths to make this out to be a flashpoint of revolution in American society. Unfortunately over a decade leader we know it's not the case. But you can't blame the guy for trying to find some hope after detailing so much horror. He tries to give the book a hopeful ending but reading it with the benefit of hindsight now definitely lessens the impact.

This book says Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco on the cover, but if it was a rap song it would Chris Hedges feat. Joe Sacco. Joe is here (and mentioned many times) but his illustrations take up a fraction of the book. They're all done amazingly as usual, something about the artwork being more emotive than an photograph might be. And the sections are usually just quotes from interview subjects, allowing them to tell their story and Joe supplying to imagery to great effect.

[Felipe Arango Betancourt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entre el reportaje, la entrevista, la crónica y el cómic se logra este revelador texto, de un valor testimonial y combativo invaluable; doloroso en sus verdades pero de acertadas y profundas reflexiones.
Unos cuantos nos vendieron la idea que el capitalismo, más que un modelo económico es una forma de relación social, que responde a una ley natural y que es una concepción filosófica con el otro, con el medio ambiente. Que la felicidad del hombre radica en sus entrañas. ¡Grave error!.

Los gobiernos del mundo al servicio de las corporaciones, listos a servir a amos sin rostro.
Los derechos de las industrias están por encima de los derechos y las libertades civiles.
El capitalismo corporativo en camino de apoderarse de los recursos públicos.

A lo largo y ancho de la geografía norteamericana los ejemplos saltan a la vista y muestran una realidad más que terrorífica, donde los días de destrucción, exterminio, segregación, esclavitud, violencia y pobreza son el pan diario de miles personas. Vastas zonas sacrificadas que responden al interés y a el apetito monetario de los grandes conglomerados y de una élite que son minoría.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Devastating accounts of a few of the U.S. sacrifice zones of corporate capitalism. So much depth in reporting. Hedges is an incredible journalist and storyteller with a huge heart. This is one of those books that you think you’ll have to take breaks with because of the subject matter. That didn’t happen for me. I was absorbed the whole way through. And the last chapter—set in the middle of the occupy movement—provides an immense amount of hope.

Beautiful book. Also, beautiful illustrations throughout. I absolutely recommend this to anyone interested in reading firsthand accounts of the effects of corporate greed on US communities and the workings of Occupy Wall Street.

[Nathalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chris Hedges is een Amerikaanse journalist, schrijver en oorlogscorrespondent die gespecialiseerd is in Amerikaanse en Midden-Oosterse politiek. Hij schreef een heel aantal boeken over oorlog, de opstand ertegen en de Amerikaanse maatschappij.

Joe Sacco is zo'n beetje de uitvinder van journalistieke beeldverhalen en is afkomstig van Malta, maar kwam uiteindelijk ook in de VS terecht.

Samen publiceerden deze heren in 2012 Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt. Het boek begint al goed: in de inleiding wordt de VS geschetst volgens bepaalde criteria en cijfers, waarbij in 2 categoriën, ivm het respect voor het milieu, ze vlak na... België (en Denemarken 1x) komen! Slik.

In vier hoofdstukken bespreken de auteurs afwisselend de uitbuiting en verwaarlozing van de 'Native Americans' in Pine Ridge, Zuid-Dakota, (voornamelijk) Afro-Amerikanen in Camden, New Jersey, blanke koolmijnarbeiders in Welch, West-Virginia en Mexicaanse & Haïtiaanse immigranten in Immokalee, Florida, allemaal gemeenschappen die in extreme armoede leven, dit ten bate van de rijkdom, de hebzucht en het consumentisme in andere delen van de VS. De Amerikaanse staat komt er nog veel slechter uit dan ik dacht, en ik vind geen ander woord voor dit boek dan 'eye-opener'. Hoe bepaalde boerderijen/ploegbazen in Florida (niet allemaal uiteraard) nog steeds beroep doen op regelrechte slavenarbeid en arme immigranten of daklozen met hen meelokken en zelfs vasthouden tegen hun wil om voor amper een dollar te werken op hun velden, hoe in West-Virginia de lokale en staatsoverheden volledig in de ban gehouden worden door corrupte steenkoolbedrijven, hoe de omstandigheden van de oorspronkelijke Amerikaanse bevolking zo schrijnend zijn en hun gemeenschapsrechten volledig geschonden worden voor weinig meer dan winst van grote bedrijven, en door de 'onderdrukking van het kapitalistische systeem'. Chris Hedges beschrijft het allemaal. Rechtvaardigheid en gelijkheid waar Amerikanen zoals in hun Constitutie toch staat, zo zouden mee moeten weglopen, worden onderuitgehaald en nergens in ere hersteld. Ja, er zijn helden uit deze gemeenschappen die wel in verzet komen en heel hun leven hun gemeenschap gesteund hebben of in opstand zijn gekomen.

Bepaalde interviews worden weergegeven in knappe beeldverhalen door Joe Sacco. Het Engels wordt niet 'schoongepoetst' maar geeft de specificiteiten van de gemeenschap en het individu in kwestie weer. Zinnen, anekdotes maar vooral ook beelden geven je een stomp in je maag. Het is de eerste maal dat ik meerdere tekeningen van hem na elkaar 'lees' en dit smaakt naar meer! De vier hoofdstukken lees je door met ingehouden adem omdat ze zo ontroeren en verontwaardiging oproepen. Het laatste hoofdstuk is een beetje een hardere dobber om door te komen omdat hier vanuit de Oost-Duitse revolte bij het afbreken van de Muur en de andere revoltes in Oost-Europa wordt overgegaan naar het ontstaan en de evolutie van de Occupy beweging, met name vooral over het door hen opgezette kamp in het Zuccotti park in New York in 2011. Het geloof van Hedges in een beweging die geen leiders heeft en door middel van ledenparticipatie hun doelstellingen willen vormgeven is mooi, maar ik blijf er persoonlijk wat sceptisch tegenover staan. Sowieso is dit boek een terecht door verschillende media en partijen gehuldigd boek dat een belangrijk beeld vormt van een vroeger zo machtige VS die haar macht meer en meer kwijt speelt in onze geglobaliseerde wereld en zeker geen voorbeeld vormt in het omgaan met hun bevolking en hele gemeenschappen. Niet Trump maar ook niet Clinton zal het de komende jaren veel beter maken in ieder geval. De verontwaardiging van de Amerikaanse bevolking over alles wat er verkeerd gaat, moet door rechtvaardige aansprekende leiders omgezet worden in wat goed is voor de VS want anders komt Europa er alleen maar slechter uit.