Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt

The first of our country's sacrifices to the common greed, writes Hedges, were the Native Americans ravaged in the U.S. western expansion from the 1700s onward. Channeling the late Howard Zinn (A People's History of American Empire), Hedges and Sacco visit four modern "sacrifice zones" where corporate interests have left tire treads all over the environment, the local economy, and the quality of life. Pine Ridge, South Dakota's exploited and impoverished Native American reservation; the ravaged urban slum life of Camden, New Jersey; the Appalachian degradation wrought by coal mines in Welsh, WV; and the near-slavery conditions of immigrant farm workers in Immokalee, FL, all testify to laissez-faire policies gone foul and the burden economic forces place on every American. A final chapter dives into the Occupy movement. Hedges's powerful text is intercut by Sacco's interviews, allowing us to meet some of our suffering countrymen through evocative, black-and-white comics.