Christopher Lynn Hedges (born September 18, 1956) is an American journalist, author, commentator and Presbyterian minister.
In his early career, Hedges worked as a freelance war correspondent in Central America for The Christian Science Monitor, NPR, and The Dallas Morning News. Hedges reported for The New York Times from 1990 to 2005,[1] and served as the Times Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief during the wars in the former Yugoslavia. In 2001, Hedges contributed to The New York Times staff entry that received the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for the paper's coverage of global terrorism.
Hedges produced a weekly column for Truthdig for 14 years until the outlet's hiatus in 2020. His books include War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (2002), a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction; American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America (2007); Death of the Liberal Class (2010); and Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt (2012), written with cartoonist Joe Sacco. Hedges writes a weekly column at Scheerpost and hosts the program The Chris Hedges Report.
Early life
Hedges was born on September 18, 1956, in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. His father was a World War II veteran, Presbyterian minister, and anti-war activist.[2][3] He was raised in rural Schoharie County, New York, southwest of Albany.
Education
Hedges received a scholarship to attend Loomis Chaffee School, a private boarding school in Windsor, Connecticut.[4] Hedges founded an underground newspaper at the school that was banned by the administration and resulted in his being put on probation.[5] He participated in track and graduated in 1975.[6]
Hedges enrolled into Colgate University and, though heterosexual, helped found an LGBT student group.[3] Hedges received his Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Colgate in 1979. He sought a postgraduate education at Harvard University's Divinity School, where he studied under James Luther Adams in addition to studying classics and Classical Greek. While attending Harvard, Hedges lived in Roxbury
The New York Times
In 1990, Hedges was hired by The New York Times. He covered the first Gulf War for the paper, where he refused to participate in the military pool system that restricted the movement and reporting of journalists.[17][18] He was arrested by the United States Army and had his press credentials revoked, but continued to defy the military restrictions to report outside the pool system. Hedges subsequently entered Kuwait with U.S. Marine Corps members who were distrustful of the Army's press control. Within The New York Times, R.W. Apple Jr. supported Hedges's defiance of the pool system.[17]
Hedges, along with Neal Conan, was taken prisoner in Basra after the war by the Iraqi Republican Guard during the Shiite uprising.[19] He was freed after a week. Hedges was appointed the paper's Middle East Bureau Chief in 1991. His reporting on the atrocities committed by Saddam Hussein in the Kurdish-held parts of northern Iraq saw the Iraqi leader offer a bounty for anyone who killed Hedges, along with other western journalists and aid workers in the region.
Later career
In 2005, Hedges became a senior fellow at Type Media Center and a columnist at Truthdig, in addition to writing books and teaching inmates at a New Jersey correctional institution.[42][44]
In 2006, Hedges was awarded a Lannan Literary Fellowship for Nonfiction.[45]
Truthdig (2006–2020)
Hedges produced a weekly column in Truthdig for 14 years. He was fired along with all of the editorial staff in March 2020.[46] Hedges and the staff had gone on strike earlier in the month to protest the publisher's attempt to fire the Editor-in-Chief Robert Scheer, demand an end to a series of unfair labor practices and the right to form a union.
Political views
Hedges has described himself as a socialist[67][68] and an anarchist.[69][70] His books Death of the Liberal Class and Empire of Illusion are strongly critical of American liberalism.
Hedges's 2007 book American Fascists describes the fundamentalist Christian right in the United States as a fascist movement. In March 2008, Hedges published the book I Don't Believe in Atheists, in which he argues that new atheism presents a danger that is similar to religious extremism.[71]
Personal life
Hedges is married to the Canadian actress, writer, and vegan activist Eunice Wong.[94][95] The couple have two children. He also has two children from a previous marriage. Hedges lived in Princeton, New Jersey as of December 2014.[96] In November 2014, Hedges announced that he and his family had become vegan. He compared his decision to a vow of abstinence, adding that it is necessary "to make radical changes to save ourselves from ecological meltdown."[97] Hedges authored an introduction to a vegan cookbook in 2015, The Anarchist Cookbook, written by Keith McHenry and Chaz Bufe.[98]
Hedges has post-traumatic stress disorder from his experience reporting in war zones.
Books
- 2002: War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (ISBN 1-58648-049-9)
- 2003: What Every Person Should Know About War (ISBN 1-4177-2104-9)
- 2005: Losing Moses on the Freeway: The 10 Commandments in America (ISBN 0-7432-5513-5)
- 2007: American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America (ISBN 0-7432-8443-7)
- 2008: I Don't Believe in Atheists (ISBN 1-4165-6795-X)
- 2008: Collateral Damage: America's War Against Iraqi Civilians, with Laila Al-Arian (ISBN 1-56858-373-7)
- 2009: When Atheism Becomes Religion: America's New Fundamentalists, (ISBN 978-1-4165-7078-3), a retitled edition of I Don't Believe in Atheists
- 2009: Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle (ISBN 978-1-56858-437-9)
- 2010: Death of the Liberal Class (ISBN 978-1-56858-644-1)
- 2010: The World As It Is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress (ISBN 978-1-56858-640-3)
- 2012: Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, with Joe Sacco (ISBN 978-1-56858-643-4)
See also
- Christian left
- Sacrifice zone
External links
- Chris Hedges columns at Scheerpost.
- "Capitalism's 'Sacrifice Zones Bill Moyers talks with Chris Hedges, and comic-journalist Joe Sacco talking about their collaboration and showing drawings for their book Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, July 20, 2012
- The Chris Hedges Report
References
- Bethany Saltman. Moral Combat: Chris Hedges on War, Faith, and Fundamentalism The Sun, December 2008, retrieved June 26, 2020^
- Ellen Gilbert. Chris Hedges: The News Is Not Good Princeton Magazine, February 2, 2013, retrieved July 8, 2021^
- Richard K. Rein. At the ramparts with Chris Hedges