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)

Prescient insight into an important minority

More than a decade later the book is invaluable for understanding critical aspects of current social trends.

spot on!

The authors have put into words and context, thoughts, feelings and observations I have had since childhood but have never been able to successfully put into words myself.

Excellent

I grew up going to a fundamentalist rock n’ roll church. This book does such a great job of detailing this weird world with all of its abnormalities and apocalyptic intentions. It puts many things into perspective and helped me better understand the world around me as well as my personal experience with fundamentalist Christianity. This is a great read for anyone, but it was especially powerful to me as I have a lot of experience within the Christian right. It was also cathartic to have someone smarter and more experienced than myself provide a granular explanation of the insanity I personally experienced for much of my life. I plan on keeping it close for reference and checking out Chris’s other books. Also the narration by both Eunice and Chris couldn’t have been better!

2023

This book is still relevant in todays politic climate despite being over a decade old.

Prescient and explanatory

Listening to this in 2023 will no doubt feel a little eerie to anyone who knows about how things are now. It was weird reading the reviews that say this book exaggerates. Chris Hedges saw it coming, and gives us an inside glimpse into how this movement works with all of its propaganda, indoctrination, and profiteering. I've read other books about how the threat of Christian nationalism and white supremacy was considered minor not long ago, yet no one could say to remains the case.

One critique: This book includes a lot of full-text if speeches and interviews with the sort of demagogue who believe and propagate this kind of radical Fascist ideology. They are awful to listen to, but illustrative I guess. I'm not sure I needed quite so many in there. That being said, as this is an audio book, be careful listening out loud. I certainly didn't want my neighbors to think I believed any of the Fascist vitriol, pseudoscience, and proselytizing being read.

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.

Difficult

This book made me feel angry every day I listened. I learned more about this devastating group of people who I truly try to avoid like the bubonic plague. If they're allowed they'll do just as much damage only with very clear evidence for who will be killed. Only non-believers and non-christians. Shame on them.

Relevant and Insightful

While the book is almost 10 years old, the authors do a good job showing the play book used at Church level to recruit, retain and proselytize the members. It is a binary world. The last Chapter, Chapter 10, offers a light overview of actionable things one can do to counter this. I was hoping for more (one less star). The book also misses out on how the right wing faction is defanging the US Supreme Court and state courts. That should be covered if an update is done. In addition, it is hard for a large segment of the population to understand the role of the Book of Revelations and how this influences how they view society and the future. That needs to be covered. There are some excellent books that cover the above topics and their implications to democracy and decency.