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

Author: Chris Hedges Year: 2009 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Politics, Non Fiction, Sociology, Philosophy, History, Education Purchase/reserch links: Goodreads Amazon LibraryThing ISBNs: 9781568586137 1568586132

We now live in two Americas. One - now the minority - functions in a print-based, literate world that can cope with complexity and can separate illusion from truth. The other - the majority - is retreating from a reality-based world into one of false certainty and magic. To this majority - which crosses social class lines, though the poor are overwhelmingly affected - presidential debate and political rhetoric is pitched at a sixth-grade reading level. In this "other America," serious film and theater, as well as newspapers and books, are being pushed to the margins of society. In the tradition of Christopher Lasch's The Culture of Narcissism and Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death, Pulitzer Prize-winner Chris Hedges navigates this culture - attending WWF contests, the Adult Video News Awards in Las Vegas, and Ivy League graduation ceremonies - to expose an age of terrifying decline and heightened self-delusion. Similar books: War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning by Chris Hedges America by Chris Hedges The Lost Art of Drawing the Line by Philip K. Howard The Vanishing American Adult by Benjamin E. Sasse A Colony in a Nation by Christopher Hayes Idiot America by Charles P. Pierce The Age Of American Unreason by Susan Jacoby Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt by Chris Hedges Unspeakable by Chris Hedges When Atheism Becomes Religion by Chris Hedges Losing Moses on the Freeway by Chris Hedges The Liberty Amendments by Mark R. Levin Liberty and Tyranny by Mark R. Levin Ameritopia by Mark R. Levin The 5000 Year Leap by W. Cleon Skousen Manufacturing Consent by Edward S. Herman Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein