Summary of Chris Hedges's America

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The Scranton Lace Company was an abandoned lace factory in Pennsylvania. It was once one of the biggest producers of Nottingham lace in the world, but it closed in 2002. The company provided its employees with dignity, purpose, pride, and a sense of place, but it was all lost when it closed.

#2 Scranton, Pennsylvania, was a city that was facing bankruptcy. The mayor, Christopher Doherty, had to cut costs and raise taxes in order to save the city.

#3 The mayor said the city’s biggest budget strain are the pensions and health care costs of its employees. The city sold off its assets to pay off the sewer authority’s $70 million debt.

#4 The acceleration of deindustrialization in the 1970s created a crisis that forced the ruling elites to devise a new political paradigm. This paradigm shifted its focus from the common good to race, crime, and law and order.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: May 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822504240

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

Book preview

Insights on Chris Hedges's America

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The Scranton Lace Company was an abandoned lace factory in Pennsylvania. It was once one of the biggest producers of Nottingham lace in the world, but it closed in 2002. The company provided its employees with dignity, purpose, pride, and a sense of place, but it was all lost when it closed.

#2

Scranton, Pennsylvania, was a city that was facing bankruptcy. The mayor, Christopher Doherty, had to cut costs and raise taxes in order to save the city.

#3

The mayor said the city’s biggest budget strain are the pensions and health care costs of its employees. The city sold off its assets to pay off the sewer authority’s $70 million debt.

#4

The acceleration of deindustrialization in the 1970s created a crisis that forced the ruling elites to devise a new political paradigm. This paradigm shifted its focus from the common good to race, crime, and law and order.

#5

The end stages of capitalism are hard to dispute. Global capitalism, in its final iteration, may replicate China’s totalitarian capitalism, a brutal system sustained by severe repression.

#6

In the late stages of capitalism, global corporations will have a monopoly on the world’s markets. They will use their power to prevent anyone from challenging their global monopolies.

#7

The big banks that were involved in the forex scam would pay a fine of $9 billion. The government was committed to spending $348 billion on modernizing our nuclear weapons and building twelve new Ohio-class nuclear submarines, which would cost $8 billion each.

#8

The idea of capitalism, free trade, free markets, individualism, and innovation, only works in the utopian mind of a true believer such as Alan Greenspan. In reality, the hoarding of wealth by a tiny capitalist elite leaves populations unable to buy the products capitalism produces.

#9

The half dozen corporations that own most of the media have worked overtime to sell the public the fiction that we are enjoying a recovery. However, as the nation’s cities continue to deteriorate, more dramatic signs of neglect will appear.

#10

Americans are glued to their TVs to watch the political soap opera that is Trump's presidency. It is good for Trump and cable news networks' profits, but bad for us