News & Events

Journalist and author Chris Hedges ’79 knows his latest book -- American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America – has elicited strong feelings and much discussion.

He’s OK with that.

Because Hedges feels strongly that American society is legitimately in peril, and he sees his book as a way to yank citizens from their complacency.

Hedges talks about his book, the abandonment of the middle class by both political parties, the war in Iraq, and shortcomings of the mainstream media in the latest episode of Colgate Conversations, a podcast series that highlights members of the campus community.

Chris Hedges '79 won a Pulitzer Prize as part of a New York Times team investigating terrorism.

In his book, which has been listed on The New York Times bestseller list, Hedges argues that a radical faction of the Christian evangelical movement, a group he calls dominionists, is intent on taking over the U.S. government and turning the country into a Christian nation, erasing all aspects of an open society.

Hedges said this movement, which has co-opted the Republican Party, is slowly taking hold and it would only take a crisis, such as another terrorist attack or a severe energy disruption, to vault the movement into the forefront.

“They feed off fear and chaos,” said Hedges.

The movement, Hedges argued, is gaining momentum as thousands of middle-class Americans lose good-paying jobs that are outsourced to other countries.

Both political parties are to blame for this growing sense of despair and abandonment, though Hedges saves his strongest criticism for former President Clinton and his support of NAFTA.

As people lose jobs and hope, and worse yet lose hope that their childrens’ lives will be better, they often become believers in “the world of magic, angels and divine intervention” espoused by the radical evangelists who are backed by huge corporate entities, said Hedges.

The son of a Presbyterian minister, Hedges graduated from Harvard Divinity School after leaving Colgate with a bachelor’s degree in English.

He worked for many years as a foreign correspondent for The New York Times, where he won the Pulitzer Prize as part of a team investigating terrorism and where he also served as Mideast bureau chief.

Hedges talks about the formal reprimand he received from The Times for harshly criticizing the Iraq war during a 2003 commencement speech at Rockford College. He left The Times shortly after to write books and teach.

He has written several books, including the bestseller War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning.  

To hear Hedges talk about his latest book, The Times, the Iraq war, and more, go here or see the Colgate Conversations page or iTunes page for download options.…