American Fascists

The Christian Right and the War on America

By: Chris Hedges, Eunice Wong

Narrated by: Chris Hedges, Eunice Wong

Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

Twenty-five years ago, when Pat Robertson and other televangelists first spoke of the United States being a Christian nation that would build a global Christian empire, it was hard to take such hyperbolic rhetoric seriously. Today, such language no longer sounds like hyperbole but poses, instead, a very real threat to our freedoms and our way of life. In American Fascists, the Christian Right's religious legitimacy is challenged, and Hedges argues that, at its core, it is a mass movement fueled by unbridled nationalism and a hatred for the open society.

Hedges, who grew up in rural parishes in upstate New York, where his father was a Presbyterian pastor, attacks the movement as someone steeped in the Bible and Christian tradition. He points to the hundreds of senators and members of Congress who have earned between 80 and 100 percent approval ratings from the three most influential Christian Right advocacy groups as one of many signs that the movement is burrowing deep inside the American government in order to subvert it.

The movement's call to dismantle the wall between church and state, and the intolerance it preaches against all who do not conform to its warped vision of a Christian America, are pumped into tens of millions of American homes through Christian television and radio stations, and are reinforced through the curriculum of Christian schools. The movement's yearning for apocalyptic violence and its assault on dispassionate, intellectual inquiry are laying the foundation for a new, frightening America.

©2007 Chris Hedges and Eunice Wong (P)2007 Tantor Media Inc.

Critic reviews

"This urgent book forcefully illuminates what many across the political spectrum will recognize as a serious and growing threat to the very concept and practice of an open society." ( Publishers Weekly)

A thoughtful analysis

I believe this book is a thoughtful analysis of one of the greatest threats to our democracy.

I recently asked a holocaust survivor if he saw any similarities between what is going on in America today compared to Fascist Europe of the late 1930s. He said there is NO difference.

Listen to first & last chapters, skip the rest.

I'm impressed at 15 years later and this analogy is still spot-on. the emotional bladder was painful and annoying to endure. And did not bring much context to the final summary. disappears to be a good primer however and further reading it should be done, naturally.

prophecy?

It's like looking into the past and seeing that Hedges was right. really fascinating look at a machine that it took me forever to get out of.

Knowledge is strength

Listen to the first chapter. If the definition of fascism resonates with you I don’t think you will be disappointed.

A hodgepodge of asides sometimes making a point

American Facism promises to be a book that enlightens the reader on the topic of facism in the context of the US. In some chapters, it quotes heavily from Robert O. Paxton’s book, The Anatomy of Facism, which having read that book, I appreciated. In those times, this book seemed insightful. The rest of the time, it failed to make coherent points, often shifting gears between biographies of certain people, the author’s personal religious views, quotes from the Bible in defense of such views, and (finally) information that actually supported a particular view about Facism in America. It was a bewildering read.

Better than I expected

This book tells part of the story of that group of Americans who would trash democracy for an ISIS style Christian theocracy. Absent political power, this group of zealots is a bunch of cooks on the outside raging against the machine. After Trump used this groups' organizational structure as the foundation for his government, this bunch of cooks is now a real threat to the survival of American democracy. Go to an evangelical fundamentalist mega church in a town near you and listen to the message. Then ask yourself if that's the country you want to live in. This bunch needs to be understood, countered and defeated. They crave power and the opportunity to enact their end times ideology. If you think you're safe behind the protections of the constitution, think again.
This book was more engaging and enlightening thatn I expected. It told a familiar story in an interesting way and I learned more than I thought I would. The message to liberals to stop tolerating the intolerable seems spot on. Tolerating those who yearn for the destruction of your world is a fools errand. If a thousand dedicated Germans had stood up to the new Nazi party in the 1920's, history could have been different...

Liberal properganda at its best

While I agree with the rhetoric in general, I think this book goes too far. The book does provided insightful analysis of the Christian rights movement in politics, while to the vices and hypocrisy of the Christian right-wing fundamentalist. However one wonders if the liberal propaganda went too far with its own conspiracy theories and fear tactics, a far cry from being objective, but as a liberal, I loved the book.

valid points

the argument laid out throughout the book is well presented. although I don't totally agree, he has some valid points. definitely worth the time to read.

The Christian Right, A Would Be Totalitarian Force

This look at all things evangelical was the most significant book I have read in 2019. Though I am sure that are many who identify as Christians as one flavor or another and are genuine in their effort to reflect Christ's teachings in their lives, American Fascists is an investigation of all the others who use the label "Christian" to validate their religious and political agendas.

The author takes the listener to the training session for those personally evangelizing non-believers, making one wonder if Christianity is faith or a mind-control cult. Through the voices of those who have been members and researchers who have studied right-wing evangelical churches, one sees institutions who trade emotional and social support for total.surrender to all the taboos, political opinions, and behavioral expectations of the church.

Among the scariest sections of Chris Hedges' book is his examination of evangelicals efforts to change America' pluralistic democracy into a dominionist state, one where all laws, policies and culture are reflections of those in the Bible as interpreted by the evangelical community. To that evangelicals offer special "Christian Leadership" training to members of congress, lobbying for legislation that deny women their right to make reproductive decisions regarding their bodies, laws that block gays, lesibians, and transgender citizens from the marriage, enlistment in the military, and other rights enjoyed by hetrosexual citizens. Probably the scariest section to me was the effort to force students of science to learn from a creationist of intelligent design curriculum. Also their efforts to redirect research funding from projects that do not comport with the dominionist agenda.

Anyone who reads this book with an open mind will come away with a different perspective on evangelical Chrisianity.

Chris Hedges, classic

Terrific, minus one detail:
I did not care for the second reader. History rendered relevant today, presented with useful options to avoid the same mistakes; this is what we all need to read.