''Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt'' is a 2012

illustrated An illustration is a decoration, interpretation or visual explanation of a text, concept or process, designed for integration in print and digital published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, video ...

non-fiction book authored by Chris Hedges and illustrated by

Joe Sacco Joe Sacco (; born October 2, 1960) is a Maltese-American cartoonist and journalist. He is best known for his comics journalism, in particular in the books '' Palestine'' (1996) and '' Footnotes in Gaza'' (2009), on Israeli–Palestinian rela ...

, chronicling life in poverty in different parts of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Structure

The book captures daily life in four areas of 'destruction or revolt', in five sections corresponding with five different locations: # Days of Theft - Pine Ridge, South Dakota # Days of Siege - Camden, New Jersey # Days of Devastation - Welch, West Virginia # Days of Slavery - Immokalee, Florida # Days of Revolt - Liberty Square, New York City The book is interspersed with interviews with several individuals as well as monographs capturing the devastation caused to people and the environment by unchecked post-industrial free market capitalism in the United States, in so called

sacrifice zone A sacrifice zone or sacrifice area (often termed a national sacrifice zone or national sacrifice area) is a geographic area that has been permanently impaired by heavy environmental alterations or economic disinvestment, often through locally unwan ...

Reception

A review in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' by Philipp Meyer was generally positive, and especially praised Sacco's illustrations and storytelling. Meyer was more critical of Hedges' contributions, describing his writings as "brilliant at depicting human life at the extremes of existence" but similar in tone to a "high priest." Both Meyer and a separate review by anarchist writer Kristian Williams negatively received the final chapter, which covered the

Occupy movement The Occupy movement was an international populist socio-political movement that expressed opposition to social and economic inequality and to the perceived lack of "real democracy" around the world. It aimed primarily to advance social and econo ...

. Williams' review was otherwise positive. ''Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt'' received positive reviews in

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and ''Library Journal''.

References

2012 non-fiction books Books about poverty Books critical of capitalism Books by Chris Hedges Nation Books books {{social-science-book-stub