Chris Hedges and Mr. Fish / TruthdigDec 17, 2018
The president and his ancestor in the art of the con, P.T. Barnum, are the true gods of our wealth-, celebrity- and power-obsessed society. Dig deeper ( 8 Min. Read )
Paul Street / TruthdigApr 4, 2018
What will historians say a century from now, if they still exist? That the most intelligent known species in the universe lost its mind. Dig deeper ( 12 Min. Read )
Paul Street / TruthdigOct 18, 2017
The story of the Essex—rooted in racialized ignorance and fear—offers a valuable lesson in survival for contemporary America. Dig deeper ( 12 Min. Read )
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Alexander Reed Kelly / TruthdigAug 3, 2014
A new history of the events behind Herman Melville's 1855 novella "Benito Cereno" takes up the question of how slavery shaped the "psychic and imaginative" dimensions of contemporary capitalism, rather than merely the "social or financial" aspects. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )
Chris Hedges / TruthdigApr 14, 2014
In "Moby Dick," Herman Melville makes our murderous obsessions, our hubris, violent impulses, moral weakness and inevitable self-destruction visible in his chronicle of a whaling voyage. He is our foremost oracle. Dig deeper ( 26 Min. Read )
By Greg Grandin, TomDispatchJan 27, 2014
The captain ready to drive himself and all around him to ruin in the hunt for a white whale has been used as an exemplar of unhinged American power. But what’s really frightening is our soberest politicians, scholars, journalists, professionals, and managers, men and women who enable the wars, devastate the planet, and rationalize the atrocities. Dig deeper ( 11 Min. Read )
BLANKJan 27, 2014
Chris Hedges takes a page from "Moby Dick" in this speech, in which he sketches out a cautionary tale about the American character and, by extension, the ultimate fate of the human race. Chris Hedges takes a page from "Moby Dick" in this speech, in part a cautionary tale about the American character and, by extension, a broader warning about the fate of the human race. Dig deeper ( 26 Min. Read )
Alexander Reed Kelly / TruthdigJul 21, 2013
The American people's collective inability to overcome commercial illusion and confront the grim realities of the economic and environmental crises means they will remain slaves to fiction and its apocalyptic outcomes, Truthdig columnist Chris Hedges told Paul Jay on The Real News Network's new show, "Reality Asserts Itself." Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )
BLANKJul 20, 2013
A description of the lives of Polynesian islanders in Melville's book "Typee" shows that the inhumanities of capitalism visible today and constantly attacked by Truthdig columnist Chris Hedges were plainly recognized in American literature of the mid-19th century. Dig deeper ( 7 Min. Read )
Chris Hedges / TruthdigJul 8, 2013
Herman Melville’s "Moby Dick" is a portrait of the American character, and like the crew of Ahab's ship we are complicit in self-annihilation. Dig deeper ( 8 Min. Read )
Staff / TruthdigSep 4, 2011
A fresh national movement to oppose the standardized testing of young students is afoot. The Bartleby Project aims to invalidate state test results by getting parents and their children to simply opt out of testing; if enough did so, that would make schools' yearly progress ratings meaningless. (more) Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )
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