Status
Available
Call number
Publication
New York : Nation Books, c2010.
Description
Politics. Nonfiction. HTML: The liberal class plays a vital role in a democracy, and posits itself as the conscience of the nation. It permits us to define ourselves as a good and noble people. Most importantly, the liberal class offers a safety valve for popular frustrations and discontentment by discrediting those who talk of profound structural change. Once this class loses its role, then democracy breaks down and the liberal class becomes an object of ridicule and hatred. The Death of the Liberal Class examines the failure of the liberal class to confront the rise of the corporate state and the consequences of a bankrupt liberalism, making the liberal class irrelevant to society at large and ultimately the corporate power elite they once served..… (more)
Media reviews
User reviews
LibraryThing member jcbrunner
Chris Hedges is still too young for this old man's rant about the present malaise of the United States of America. His disenchantment dates back to 2003 when his anti-Iraq War advocacy led to his separation from the warmongering New York Times. Prior to that Hedges had covered the Middle East and
He never discusses what constitutes liberalism and the Liberal Class. With him, liberalism is sort of a warm feeling of doing the right often progressive thing. If he had discussed this, he would have noted that US Liberals are a fairly conservative bunch in a global view. After all, the US founding fathers were liberals. They wanted "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness", mostly for themselves. They and their descendants were and are quite happy to keep others in bondage or in wage slavery. Otherwise, they would pay the army of cheap labor, the Wallmart greeters and packagers, the bellhops and concierges, the shoe shiners and ushers, gardeners and nannies a decent wage including health care. The lack of descent universal health care, education and transport infrastructure is no accident but an effect of a government of the rich, by the rich and for the rich. The United States of America has, from the beginning, been horribly afraid from "liberté, égalité, fraternité". Solidarity is un-American (only charity is acceptable if asked for by meek applicants).
Just as most European liberals such as the German FDP are the party of the rich and the professionals (managers, lawyers, doctors), the US Democrats mostly represent elite interests. There is no Liberal Class, they are part of the ruling class with a more centric outlook.Thus, it is no wonder that the progressives, Hedges so admires, are mostly left out in the cold, shut out of the governing process and have to fight tooth and nail to get even a piece of progressive legislation enacted. Hedges' stories about the failure of his heroes from the First World War on to achieve progressive successes instantly falsifies his titular claim of the death of the Liberal Class. While Hedges interviewed Zinn and Chomsky, he did not get their message that the US bipolar political organization is a scam. The New York Times does not write for the masses but a tiny elite. With a circulation of one million, it is directed at and reaches the small sliver of Americans who decide. For most Americans, politics is just a form of entertainment (Hollywood for ugly people). Hedges' chapter on politics as spectacle is his best, a reworking of the classic panem et circenses charge adapted to a Dancing with the Stars USA.
His rant fails to present countermeasures. His attack on the internet, technology and globalization is severely outdated. The new media are just the path to outflank the gate-keeping New York Times and the other media conglomerates. Unfortunately and ultimately, it is the passivity of the general population, and the poor among them, that prevents reform. It is not a lack of activists (Hedges' main charge) but a failure of resonance, of getting people off their couches, that keeps the plutocracy in power.
Overall, given his quite thoughtful interviews, I expected a deeper, more reasoned book. Enjoyable as a passionate but fruitless rant, thus itself one piece of the typical inconsequential output of the Liberal Class.
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the Balkans for the New York Times, in the middle of the sausage making of foreign politics reporting for an American audience. The moral failure (Hedges also studied divinity!) of so many of his liberal friends and institutions in standing fast against a blatantly unjust war underlies much of the writing of this philippic against the Liberals.He never discusses what constitutes liberalism and the Liberal Class. With him, liberalism is sort of a warm feeling of doing the right often progressive thing. If he had discussed this, he would have noted that US Liberals are a fairly conservative bunch in a global view. After all, the US founding fathers were liberals. They wanted "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness", mostly for themselves. They and their descendants were and are quite happy to keep others in bondage or in wage slavery. Otherwise, they would pay the army of cheap labor, the Wallmart greeters and packagers, the bellhops and concierges, the shoe shiners and ushers, gardeners and nannies a decent wage including health care. The lack of descent universal health care, education and transport infrastructure is no accident but an effect of a government of the rich, by the rich and for the rich. The United States of America has, from the beginning, been horribly afraid from "liberté, égalité, fraternité". Solidarity is un-American (only charity is acceptable if asked for by meek applicants).
Just as most European liberals such as the German FDP are the party of the rich and the professionals (managers, lawyers, doctors), the US Democrats mostly represent elite interests. There is no Liberal Class, they are part of the ruling class with a more centric outlook.Thus, it is no wonder that the progressives, Hedges so admires, are mostly left out in the cold, shut out of the governing process and have to fight tooth and nail to get even a piece of progressive legislation enacted. Hedges' stories about the failure of his heroes from the First World War on to achieve progressive successes instantly falsifies his titular claim of the death of the Liberal Class. While Hedges interviewed Zinn and Chomsky, he did not get their message that the US bipolar political organization is a scam. The New York Times does not write for the masses but a tiny elite. With a circulation of one million, it is directed at and reaches the small sliver of Americans who decide. For most Americans, politics is just a form of entertainment (Hollywood for ugly people). Hedges' chapter on politics as spectacle is his best, a reworking of the classic panem et circenses charge adapted to a Dancing with the Stars USA.
His rant fails to present countermeasures. His attack on the internet, technology and globalization is severely outdated. The new media are just the path to outflank the gate-keeping New York Times and the other media conglomerates. Unfortunately and ultimately, it is the passivity of the general population, and the poor among them, that prevents reform. It is not a lack of activists (Hedges' main charge) but a failure of resonance, of getting people off their couches, that keeps the plutocracy in power.
Overall, given his quite thoughtful interviews, I expected a deeper, more reasoned book. Enjoyable as a passionate but fruitless rant, thus itself one piece of the typical inconsequential output of the Liberal Class.
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LibraryThing member kukulaj
This book covers the decay of liberalism from World War 1 through the rest of the 20th Century. Liberals started off championing the working class but degenerated into a lame "rising tide floats all boats" support for the rich and powerful. This shift was basically driven by a desire for liberals
I have read a bit about much of this history and find great resonance between my own outlook and that of Hedges. Still I found this book to be rather gut-wrenching. The elite has such power to suppress threats to its own privileges! Hedges covers this history in considerable detail, from Eugene Debs to Ralph Nader.
Hedges does have some constructive suggestions. The way forward is to build alternative structures starting at the grassroots level and pretty much ignoring the existing power structures. Of course there are rich traditions from which we can draw. Hedges is a Christian which comes through in the book but not in an overbearing way. We really need to pull resources from all the spiritual traditions of the world!
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to save their own necks from various threats such as the McCarthy black list or just getting turned down for academic tenure.I have read a bit about much of this history and find great resonance between my own outlook and that of Hedges. Still I found this book to be rather gut-wrenching. The elite has such power to suppress threats to its own privileges! Hedges covers this history in considerable detail, from Eugene Debs to Ralph Nader.
Hedges does have some constructive suggestions. The way forward is to build alternative structures starting at the grassroots level and pretty much ignoring the existing power structures. Of course there are rich traditions from which we can draw. Hedges is a Christian which comes through in the book but not in an overbearing way. We really need to pull resources from all the spiritual traditions of the world!
Show Less
LibraryThing member Panopticon2
Well, *that* was depressing. "Death of the Liberal Class" is probably the most unrelentingly grim polemic I've ever read. It could usefully be subtitled: "Why America Is Going to Hell in a Handbasket, and There's Nothing To Be Done About It."
In the author's view, the "liberal class" in America
And yet...I was left to wonder: if things are really as bad as he says they are, shouldn't his voice have been silenced? By his own reasoning, this book should never have seen the light of day, let alone have been feted by the liberal class it excoriates, and indeed, been awarded a Pulitzer Prize.
In the author's view, the "liberal class" in America
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(which he never defines, incidentally) has abdicated its role of checking the worst excesses of power, to the point that it now effectively serves as a prop to the corporate state that will prove to be America's downfall. He draws parallels with Nazi Germany and Tsarist Russia. Some of what he's written is totally, terrifyingly plausible. His argument in a nutshell? "We stand on the verge of one of the bleakest periods in human history, when the bright lights of civilizations will blink out and we will descend for decades, if not centuries, into barbarity." And yet...I was left to wonder: if things are really as bad as he says they are, shouldn't his voice have been silenced? By his own reasoning, this book should never have seen the light of day, let alone have been feted by the liberal class it excoriates, and indeed, been awarded a Pulitzer Prize.
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LibraryThing member lfcb
Great analysis; but seems to have been a little rushed. Better fact checking would have been useful. M Ignatief is not the leader of Canada's Labour Party.
LibraryThing member nmele
This is a powerful, prophetic book, but very gloomy.
LibraryThing member robrod1
This book describes that when the Liberal class no longer functions, we are in trouble. Chris Hedges details that the death of the liberal class removes an important check and balance against the powers that be. I can see what he is talking about all around me. The simple fact is, if things remain
This is the book to really start you thinking.
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the same, the working and middle classes are getting really ticked-off. We have politicians and leaders that no longer work for us. They are controlled by American corporations, like Halliburton, that steals from U.S. citizens, and it is allowed to. It is time to remove corporate protection for officers of corporations, and we should not allowed any corporation or business to contribute to politicians or fund political action committees, and lobbyists should be removed from congress. The forefathers of this country were terrified of corporations, and so should we be. They own this country and our politicians. If nothing changes our democracy is done. The middle and working classes are beginning to hate democratic institutions and the top one percent. Something needs to be done now, before it is to late.This is the book to really start you thinking.
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LibraryThing member MarkBeronte
For decades the liberal class was a defense against the worst excesses of power. But the pillars of the liberal class— the press, universities, the labor movement, the Democratic Party, and liberal religious institutions—have collapsed. In its absence, the poor, the working class, and even the
In this searing polemic Chris Hedges indicts liberal institutions, including his former employer, the New York Times, who have distorted their basic beliefs in order to support unfettered capitalism, the national security state, globalization, and staggering income inequalities. Hedges argues that the death of the liberal class created a profound vacuum at the heart of American political life. And now speculators, war profiteers, and demagogues— from militias to the Tea Party—are filling the void.
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middle class no longer have a champion.In this searing polemic Chris Hedges indicts liberal institutions, including his former employer, the New York Times, who have distorted their basic beliefs in order to support unfettered capitalism, the national security state, globalization, and staggering income inequalities. Hedges argues that the death of the liberal class created a profound vacuum at the heart of American political life. And now speculators, war profiteers, and demagogues— from militias to the Tea Party—are filling the void.
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LibraryThing member TegarSault
Similar to his other book Empire of Illusion, this book focuses on American History and how the Liberal class was weakened and died over the course of American History. Well written and insightful, and since I know only a little bit about American History it was very informative as well.
LibraryThing member Paul_S
I feel duly patronised.
The author thinks that liberals are being too selfish and instead of saving humanity they concentrate on personal success. The unspoken assumption of liberals being saviours of humanity is humorous but the contempt for "the working class" who are presumably some subspecies of
But the section about the Internet cheered me up - what a load of misinformed rubbish.
The author thinks that liberals are being too selfish and instead of saving humanity they concentrate on personal success. The unspoken assumption of liberals being saviours of humanity is humorous but the contempt for "the working class" who are presumably some subspecies of
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man is downright sad.But the section about the Internet cheered me up - what a load of misinformed rubbish.
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LibraryThing member c_why
Overwhelming, exhausting -- this book could be divided into 17 books, it covered so much. Brilliant. He dares speak the truths that seldom, sometimes never, get into print. I have never devoted such a long, intesive time (per page) on any book. The historical views of the US labour movement pre
. . . to be continued . . . [I'm ashamed to stick this little "review" in with some of the magnificent ones on this website]
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WWII were fascinating. His firing from the NY Times was very intriguing. And I could go on for weeks. I must read it over -- too much to absorb. And the last dozen pages which I've just finished will make for an uneasy sleep tonight: The stark outline of humanity's immanent demise which we, as heedless consumers; and corporations, now the unchallengable demonic rulers of the planet, have brought about by disregarding the limited capacities of our earth & air.. . . to be continued . . . [I'm ashamed to stick this little "review" in with some of the magnificent ones on this website]
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LibraryThing member BibliophageOnCoffee
Enlightening AND damning. Chris Hedges can PREACH.
Awards
Independent Publisher Book Awards (Gold — 2012)
Language
Original publication date
2010
Physical description
423 p.; 22 inches
ISBN
1568586442 / 9781568586441
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