1
of
1
Empire of Illusion
The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still
learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Summary
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$3999
Unit price
/
Unavailable
OVERNIGHT NZ-WIDE DELIVERY
Found a better price? Request a price match
Empire of Illusion
$3999
Unit price
/
Unavailable
Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
A Pulitzer Prize-winning and New York Times best-selling author charts the dramatic and disturbing rise of a post-literate America that craves fantasy, ecstasy, and illusion.
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
still learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Description
In this New York Times bestseller, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges has written a shattering meditation on the American obsession with celebrity and the epidemic of illiteracy that threatens our cultural integrity.
Reporting on phenomena such as professional wrestling, the pornographic film industry, and unchecked casino capitalism, Hedges exposes the mechanisms used to divert us from confronting the economic, political, and moral collapse around us.
Empire of Illusion shows us how illiteracy and the embrace of fantasy have impoverished our working class, allowed for the continuance of destructive public policy, and ushered in cultural bankruptcy.
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
The book by Chris Hedges is lauded for its incisive critique of how unchecked capitalism is eroding the American Dream. It argues that various societal illusions are collectively harming American culture and the national psyche. The narrative is described as remarkable, thought-provoking, and morally grounded, likely to spark significant controversy and interest.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781568586137
Publisher: Avalon Publishing Group
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 05 October 2010
Country: United States
Imprint: Nation Books
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 16.0mm
Width: 139.0mm
Height: 210.0mm
Weight: 220g
Pages: 240
About the Author
Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. He spent nearly two decades as a correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa, and the Balkans, with fifteen years at the New York Times. He is the author of numerous bestselling books, including Empire of Illusion Death of the Liberal Class War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning and Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, which he co-wrote with Joe Sacco. He writes a weekly column for the online magazine Truthdig. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey.
Also by Chris Hedges
View all-
The Greatest Evil is War
Now with a new preface for the paperback edition by the author, an unflinching indictment of the horror and obscenity of war by one of our finest war correspondents. Drawn from experience and interviews by Pulitzer-prize-winner Chris Hedges, The Greatest Evil is War provides a devastating look into the hidden costs of war, highlighting what it does to individuals, families,...Paperback$3200Elsewhere:$3500Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Genocide Foretold, A - RIGHTS NOT OWNED
With intimate and harrowing portraits of the human consequences of oppression, occupation, and violence experienced in Palestine today, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges issues a call to action urging us to bear witness and engage with the ongoing humanitarian crisis. Hedges wrote the first section of the book when he was in Ramallah in July 2024, drawing from his extensive...Paperback$5100Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
America: The Farewell Tour
Chris Hedges’s profound and unsettling examination of America in crisis is “an exceedingly…provocative book, certain to arouse controversy, but offering a point of view that needs to be heard” (Booklist), about how bitter hopelessness and malaise have resulted in a culture of sadism and hate. America, says Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Chris Hedges, is convulsed by an array of pathologies that...Paperback$3999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks
More from Science & Nature
View all-
Murder Under the Mistletoe
BOOK 4 IN THE BESTSELLING CANON CLEMENT MYSTERY SERIES 'The best of the new cosy crime writers' Daily Telegraph 'You'll want to take a front row pew in Champton while this delicious series unfolds' Janice Hallett It is Christmas Day and at Champton Rectory, Canon Daniel Clement and his mother Audrey are joined by the residents and guests of the...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
John and Paul
THE SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 'A triumph.' Deborah Levy, New Statesman 'Tremendous.' Alwyn Turner, The Times 'Revelatory.' Simon Schama, Financial Times 'The gold standard of Beatles books.' Anthony Quinn, Observer 'As enthralling and astonishing as their music.' Jon Dennis, Sunday Telegraph 'A masterpiece.' Dylan Jones, Evening Standard '[Ian Leslie]...Paperback$2800Elsewhere:$3299Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Raising Hare
THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2025 SHORTLISTED FOR WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024 SHORTLISTED FOR THE HATCHARDS AND BIOGRAPHERS' CLUB FIRST BIOGRAPHY PRIZE A BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR THE HAY FESTIVAL, SUNDAY TIMES, THE TIMES, FINANCIAL TIMES, SPECTATOR AND iNEWS 'A beautiful book' - ANGELINA JOLIE 'I...Paperback$2400Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
What If? 10th Anniversary Edition
CELEBRATING TEN YEARS OF THE MILLION-SELLING POP SCIENCE CLASSIC WITH A SPECIAL EDITION. THIS IS WHAT IF? . . . x10. THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'Nerd royalty' — BEN GOLDACRE 'Totally brilliant' — TIM HARFORD 'Required reading across the world' — NEW YORK TIMES From the creator of the wildly popular xkcd.com, experience hilarious and informative answers to important questions...Hardback$4200Elsewhere:$5000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Nuclear War
The Sunday Times bestselling non-fiction thriller that has to be read to be believed. Baillie Gifford shortlisted, a favourite of Steven Bartlett, with an average reader rating of 4.6, sure to be a mass-market hit. Up to now, no one outside of official circles has known exactly what would happen if a rogue state launched a nuclear missile at the...Paperback$2500Elsewhere:$2800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
The Anxious Generation
A powerful argument for reclaiming childhood—and all human relationships—from the online world, from the influential social psychologist and international bestselling author. Jonathan Haidt has spent his career speaking truth and wisdom in some of the most difficult spaces—communities polarised by politics and religion, campuses battling culture wars, and now the mental health emergency hitting teenagers today in many countries around...Paperback$2299Elsewhere:$3000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Prisoners of Geography
Prisoners of Geography looks at the past, present, and future to offer crucial insights into one of the major factors that determine world history – because if you don’t know geography, you’ll never have the full picture. Originally published in 2015, this completely revised and updated edition brings it up to date with the events and trends of the past...Paperback$2899Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Booker PrizeOrbital
Winner of the Booker Prize 2024. Chair of the judges, Edmund de Waal, describes the winner as 'a book about a wounded world' adding that the panel's 'unanimity about Orbital recognises its beauty and ambition'. Life on our planet as you've never seen it before. A team of astronauts in the International Space Station collect meteorological data, conduct scientific experiments...Paperback$2200Elsewhere:$2600Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Diddly Squat: Home to Roost
It's been another memorable year on Diddly Squat Farm - will the chickens finally come home to roost? Welcome back to Clarkson's Farm. The spring crop failed. Farming sheep, pigs, and cows was hardly more lucrative (better off breeding ostriches...) But in the face of uncooperative weather, bureaucracy, and the world's persistent refusal to recognise his genius, our hero's not...Paperback$2600Elsewhere:$3000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
The Place of Tides
To save the world, we have to start somewhere. One afternoon many years ago, James Rebanks met an old woman on a remote Norwegian island. She lived and worked alone on a tiny rocky outcrop, caring for wild ducks and gathering their down. Hers was a centuries-old trade that had once made men and women rich, but had long been...Paperback$3000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Ultra-Processed People
Launching the runaway bestseller with ambitions to be the biggest non-fiction paperback of the year IT'S NOT YOU. IT'S THE FOOD. "If you only read one diet or nutrition book in your life, make it this one" - Bee Wilson "You've got to get this book in your life . . . Completely compelling . . . Read a page...Paperback$2500Elsewhere:$2800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
The Island of Missing Trees
The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak is a captivating and poignant novel that delves into the intertwined lives of two star-crossed lovers in war-torn Cyprus and their enduring legacy decades later. This Sunday Times bestselling novel intricately weaves themes of love, loss, and identity amidst a backdrop of cultural and historical turmoil. Set in 1974 on the island...Paperback$2300Elsewhere:$2600Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today
Why buy from us?
Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!
Service & Delivery
Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.
Auckland Bookstore
We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.
Our Gifting Service
Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.
